PowerChina, a state-owned firm, is constructing the world’s largest commercial floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Hainan, with a capacity of 1 GW.
This project will generate 11 times more power than the current largest floating wind farm in Norway. The farm will be built in two phases, with the first phase of 200 MW to be completed by 2025 and the remaining 800 MW by 2027.
This farm differs from conventional offshore wind farms as it will have turbines floating on the ocean surface, allowing them to be situated farther out to sea where wind speeds are higher. The growth of China’s offshore wind energy industry is rapidly expanding and may soon run out of space near shore.
China’s offshore wind energy industry is expanding very quickly, and will run out of space near shore at some point, said Mr Cosimo Ries, a renewable energy analyst at Beijing-based consultancy firm Trivium.
“So it is in a way inevitable that floating offshore wind has to take off,” he said, adding that these projects promise great potential for expansion of wind power.
The National Energy Administration has announced a target to install 65 GW of wind power and 98 GW of solar power in the current year, which totals to approximately 160 GW combined, as per figures revealed during its annual conference held on December 30th.
If this goal is achieved, it will represent a 35% increase from the previous year’s target of 120 GW of wind and solar power. The overall aim of China is to reach a total capacity of 1,200 GW of wind and solar power by 2030.
