Bill Paul

As it scrambles to develop an offshore wind power industry that potentially may generate as much as 200 gigawatts of electricity, China has decided to hamstring all would-be foreign developers, which should provide a big lift to certain Chinese companies.

As reported last week by Environmental Finance magazine in its online edition, Beijing has effectively shut out international operators with new regulations requiring any foreign offshore developer to enter into a joint venture with a Chinese company under which the foreign firm must be a minority partner. “In reality, most of the international developers cannot, or are not willing to, do a joint venture with (a) Chinese partner,” Environmental Finance quoted the policy director of the Global Wind Energy Council as saying.

The wind council official called the new regulations “shocking,” but for investors they may be inviting.

With China expected to rapidly ramp up offshore wind generation, certain Chinese wind power companies could see their underlying valuations rise the more Beijing’s new offshore policy becomes apparent.

One in particular is China Longyuan (Symbol CGYG.OB), which just went public in December. Another possible beneficiary is Xinjiang Goldwind, which trades locally under the symbol 002202. Goldwind has announced plans to ramp up production of offshore turbine machines.

Still another potential beneficiary is Datang International Power (Symbol DIPGY). World wind-power leader Vestas of Norway (Symbol VWDRY) has called Datang an important wind development company.

DISCLOSURE: No position.

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Bill Paul is Managing Editor of  EnergyTechStocks.com.