Business
Growing with the wind
  ·  2023-02-02  ·   Source: ChinAfrica

 

Xinghua Bay Offshore Wind Farm in Fuqing, Fujian Province (CHEN XUAN) 

The wind blowing in the sea is a never-ending source of energy. As an engineer with China Three Gorges Corp. (CTG) working on the first turbine in the Xinghua Bay Offshore Wind Farm in Fuqing, Fujian Province, Cai Zhengwei has witnessed the rapid increase in China’s wind power generation.  

“The development of offshore wind power is growing by leaps and bounds,” he said. The capacity of the farm expanded from 5 mw to 10 mw over a short period of time, and recently, production of a new 16-mw turbine was completed.  

The 16-mw offshore wind turbine, jointly developed by CTG and Chinese company Goldwind, rolled off the production line on 23 November 2022 at CTG’s wind power industrial park in Fujian. At 146 metres high and 123 metres long, this power plant for the sea is currently the most powerful wind turbine in the world.  

According to Lei Mingshan, chairman of CTG, this is a new benchmark for the development of offshore wind power facilities worldwide. The 16-mw wind turbine will be installed off the coast of Fujian in 2023, making a contribution to the green development of the province. 

According to CTG, the turbine can generate over 66 million kwh of clean electricity annually, which is enough to power 36,000 households for an entire year while saving approximately 22,000 tonnes of coal equivalent and reducing over 54,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission, helping China to reach its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. 

Industrial clusters 

Between the Taiwan Mountain Range in the Taiwan region of China and the Wuyi Mountain Range in Fujian Province lies the Taiwan Strait. It is one of regions in China with the most abundant offshore wind resources as a result of the effect of narrow. According to Lei Zengjuan, executive director of Fujian Energy Investment Co. under CTG, the province has some of the best wind resources in the country and even the world, with an average offshore wind speed of roughly 9 metres per second.  

According to Lei, CTG International Offshore Wind Energy Industrial Park is essential to the integrated development of the industrial chain and the advancement of both upstream and downstream companies in the industry. Offshore wind power is an example of a typical sector with a robust supply chain, starting with raw materials and essential parts like castings and bearings, then moving to machines, associated towers, cables, and turbines, and ending with offshore wind farms and grid operation and maintenance. 

The Fuqing industrial park project was officially launched in 2017. Offshore wind enterprises with cutting-edge technology, dependable quality, and the best fit for the sea and wind conditions in Fujian were chosen for the project. In just two years, the industrial park has welcomed five leading Chinese and international companies, including Goldwind, capable of producing, distributing and providing aftersales services for turbines with installed capacity of over 3 million kw and major parts. Companies covering the whole supply chain have been set up at the park, which offers an excellent platform for coordinated development.  

The industrial cluster has also sparked record-breaking innovation, which is more significant. The 16-mw wind turbine, according to Goldwind’s Chief Engineer Zhai Endi, incorporates substantial scientific advancements in the design and production of essential parts including massive bearings and extremely long, light-weight blades. By intelligently adjusting the operating mode in response to unfavourable weather situations like typhoons, the turbine’s operational status monitoring has been highly digitalised, assuring safe and effective power generation. 

National development 

With 180,000 km of coastline, more than 2 million square km of continental shelf, and more than 6,500 islands, China has abundant offshore wind resources. China Meteorological Administration estimates that China’s offshore and deep water wind resources in the sea area up to 200 km from the coastline have a development potential of roughly 2.25 billion kw in power generation capacity.  

The development of the offshore wind energy industry in China, which started in the 1980s, underwent a localisation process in the 1990s before experiencing a period of significant growth after 2000. According to Cao Zhigang, president of Goldwind, after 20 years of development, features such as blade diameter, unit power level, tower height, and electricity generation cost per unit are similar to the best international technology. 

China now has the highest installed capacity offshore wind power generation in the world, up from 1.03 million kw at the end of 2015 to 27.26 million kw in the third quarter of 2022, according to the National Energy Administration. China has five offshore wind power bases with a combined capacity of 10 million kw planned for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, which would hasten the development of offshore wind power generation. By 2030, the total installed capacity will be greater than 200 million kw. 

The development of large-scale offshore wind energy will be a significant trend in the future, according to Qin Haiyan, secretary general of Chinese Wind Energy Association under the China Renewable Energy Society, and by 2025, 20-mw wind turbines should become a reality.  

Offshore Wind: Where Do We Stand in The World? 

The World Forum Offshore Wind has published its Global Offshore Wind Report HY1 2022, which shows that in the first half of 2022, the world’s growth continues with 6.76 gw of newly installed capacity, of which, 5.1 gw was in China. A total of 33 new offshore wind farms went into operation throughout the world, 25 of which were in China, five in Vietnam, one in the UK, one in South Korea, and one in Italy. Globally, installed offshore wind capacity reached 54.9 gw by the end of June 2022, 45 percent of which (24.9 gw) is now installed in China. The offshore wind sector is still expanding in the Chinese mainland, with a total capacity of 3.2 gw currently under construction.  

China
Opinion
World
Business
Lifestyle
Video
Multimedia
 
China Focus
Documents
Special Reports
 
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise with Us
Subscribe
Partners: China.org.cn   |   China Today   |   China Pictorial   |   People's Daily Online   |   Women of China   |   Xinhua News Agency   |   China Daily
CGTN   |   China Tibet Online   |   China Radio International   |   Global Times   |   Qiushi Journal
Copyright Beijing Review All rights reserved 京ICP备08005356号 京公网安备110102005860