Causes of and Solutions to Overcapacity in the New Energy Industry: Taking Wind Energy and Solar Energy as Examples

Although overcapacity in equipment manufacturing link of the new energy industry represented by solar and wind energies has been improved in recent years, overcapacity in the power generation and utilization links is still serious. Many policies have been issued to solve this problem,yet their outcomes hardly met the expectations. The low utilization rate of power generation equipment and high curtailment of wind and photovoltaic power further hamper the healthy development of the new energy industry. The author holds that the overcapacity is an inevitable result of the thinking mode and investment mechanism based on the traditional fossil fuel system.Constrained by such an inappropriate development model, many policies failed to thoroughly solve the problems emerging in the development of the new energy industry. Thus, it is necessary to focus on the characteristics of new energies, transform the development path, establish a suitable development and utilization model and an electric system that favors new energy, and break down the institutional and organizational barriers for the healthy development of the new energy industry.