China says it began construction of its first large-scale offshore wind farm with 16 megawatt turbines on Saturday.
This represents a significant change from the smaller and less efficient turbines that China’s offshore wind farms have often used, the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) said in a report on Sunday.
“At present, the country’s offshore wind farms usually use wind turbines with a single capacity of less than 10 MW,” said Gong Kuangmin, vice president of Zhangpu Haixia Co., Ltd.
“The higher the turbine capacity, the higher the power generation efficiency, and the lower the development and operation costs,” added Kuangmin, a subsidiary of state-owned power company China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG).
Wind Farm Construction
A new wind farm with a total capacity of 400MW, located 32.8 kilometres off the coast of Zhangpu County in Fujian Province, is expected to start supplying electricity to the grid in late August.
CTG and Goldwind Science and Technology Co. cooperate in a wind farm. This will bring the country closer to its goal of becoming a global leader in renewable energy, the CGTN report claimed.
This new wind farm is expected to produce more than 1.6 billion kilowatts of electricity per year, saving 500,000 tonnes of conventional coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.36 million tons.
CTG also plans to combine solar energy development, offshore hydrogen production, and a sea farm with the wind farm.
China’s Growing Wind Power
In November 2022, a 16-megawatt offshore wind turbine designed by CTG and Goldwind Science and Technology Co. will be installed.
This follows comparable developments in the country’s offshore wind sector, where both Haizhuang Wind Power and Ming Yang Smart Energy Group announced 18 MW turbines in January 2023.
Meanwhile, China’s efforts to become a world leader in renewable energy have made significant progress, with the construction of the first large-scale offshore wind farm with a 16-megawatt turbine.
Demand for advanced energy storage in China is forecast to grow by nearly 50% to 30 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2023, bringing total demand to 100 GWh.
Shenzhen-listed Sungrow Power Supply, China’s largest energy storage provider, predicted late last month that its net profit could double to 3.2–3.8 billion yuan ($560 million) in 2022 from the previous year.
Six wind projects with a total capacity of 87 GW were completed in 2022 through equipment tenders, compared with about 60 GW in 2021, according to wind energy data provider Windmango.
China’s installed wind and solar power capacity grew 22 percent last year, according to Fitch Ratings.
Report partially derived from a CGTN article.