China plans to build five 10 million-kilowatt offshore wind power bases during the nation's 14th Five Year Plan (2021-25) period.
So far, the planned installed capacity of the country has reached 80 million kW, which is expected to promote high-speed development of the offshore wind power industry.
In the Bohai Bay waters of East China's Shandong Peninsula sits the Shandong Changyi Marine Ranch, which has generated more than 200 million kilowatt-hours this year.
Construction of China's first ultra-large single-capacity offshore wind power project kicked off in Zhangpu, East China's Fujian Province not long ago. It is the country's first wind farm to adopt ultra-large-capacity generator units.
In Yangjiang, South China's Guangdong Province, the Shapa Offshore Wind Farm, China's first 1 million-kW offshore wind power base, has been providing clean power to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
A staff member of China Three Gorges Renewables (Group) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Three Gorges Corporation, said that at present, the company has formed a preliminary offshore wind energy corridor from Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province to Yangjiang in Guangdong, with a total installed capacity of 4.87 million kW of power and an average daily power output of over 35 million kWh, sufficient for the power consumption of 16,000 households for a year.
According to China's 14th Five-Year Plan on Renewable Energy Development (2021-25), a comprehensive blueprint for accelerating the country's renewable energy development, five offshore wind power bases are to be developed in the Shandong Peninsula, the Yangtze River Delta region, South Fujian, East Guangdong and Beibu Bay.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, plans for development of 80 million kW of installed capacity for wind power have been made and accumulated output is expected to exceed 200 million kW in 2030.
On March 26, Haiyou Guanlan, China's first deepsea floating wind power platform, left the Fulu Wharf of Zhuhai, Guangdong, heading to Hainan's Wenchang waters for offshore installation and operation.
In recent years, China has accelerated the construction of a clean and low-carbon energy system, and the proportion of clean energy and non-fossil energy consumption has been rapidly increasing.
As a clean energy source, wind power is playing an increasingly important role in optimizing the country's energy structure.
China has rich wind power resources. The development potential of such energy is estimated to be about 2.25 billion kW within 200 kilometers offshore. By the end of 2022, the accumulative installed capacity of offshore wind power in the country exceeded 30 million kW, which tops the world’s total installed offshore wind power capacity.
Experts from the Wind Energy Committee of China Renewable Energy Association said that China's wind power installed capacity, both inland and offshore, accounts for nearly half of the world's total, and its annual growth was also half that of the world's in the past decade. The progress of the Chinese wind power market has driven development of the entire global industry.
The head of the CNOOC Energy Economics Institute, a subsidiary of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), said that large-scale development will be an important trend in offshore wind power in the future. It is expected that by the end of China's 14th Five-Year Plan period, a 20-megawatt wind turbine will be developed. The far-reaching sea areas with higher quality wind power resources and less human activity will be the main site for future wind power development.
According to the report on scale of global offshore wind power projects, it is predicted that by 2030, the global installed floating wind power capacity will reach 16.5 gigawatts.
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
