Chinese wind power heads offshore

• 14 years ago (2010-04-05)
• David Flin

Asia 851 Renewables 753

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China’s first offshore wind farm, a 102MW array is due to come to full power by the end of April 2010, is located in the Yangtze River delta near Shanghai. Chinese officials have announced plans to request bids for 3-4 large-scale offshore wind power projects generating up to 1000MW total.

Beijing-based energy consultancy Azure International predicts that China will install 514MW of offshore wind over the next 3-4 years, and by 2020 will have invested $100 billion to install up to 30,000 MW, equal to all of the onshore wind farms currently installed in China.

Forty per cent of China’s population lives along the eastern seaboard. China is building a transmission supergrid to bring in hydroelectric, coal and wind power from western China. However, Sebastian Meyer, Azure’s Research Director, said leaders of coastal provinces see offshore development as a means of local investment. “China still has a very protectionist economy. There’s an interest from provincial governments to support the coastal economy and jobs by supporting a wind industry in their backyard.”

China’s National Energy Administration and National Oceanic Administration have issued joint regulations for offshore wind farm development since January in a bid to accelerate growth of the industry. Li Junfeng, Deputy Director of China’s Energy Research Institute in Beijing, said that near-term development would focus on the 100-200 GW of wind energy potential available in extensive tidal flats. She highlighted Jiangsu Province, which has 8-10 GW of intertidal wind power potential. Jiangsu is the only coastal site among six regional wind power development centres designated by Beijing last year. Each is slated to receive at least 10GW of installed wind power installation by 2020.