China Three Gorges Corporation has announced plans to develop 25 new energy projects with a total investment of CNY58Bn (US$8Bn). The projects include what would be the first gigawatt-scale offshore wind project in China, in Guangdong province, and a smaller, although still large-scale project in Jiangsu province
The company said the projects were “part of its efforts to step up the clean energy push” and “fight against the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.”
With an installed capacity of 3.92 GW, the projects are in 14 provinces and regions across the country including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Fujian, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Hebei.
Among the new projects is a 1.4-GW offshore windfarm in Yangjiang, Guangdong province and an 800-MW offshore windfarm in Yangjiang, Guangdong. Together they would have a combined investment of CNY42.4Bn (US$6.0Bn).
China Three Gorges said the two windfarms, scheduled to be fully operational by 2021, would require 414 domestically manufactured “large-capacity wind turbines.”
The Rudong project would also be notable for the first use of 400-kV direct current transmission system on a project in China. The export cable for the project would be 100 km in length, making it the longest DC transmission line in China.
“Development and construction of this project will help China make a breakthrough in offshore wind and DC transmission technology and will serve as a benchmark for constructing large-capacity offshore windfarms in the future,” China Three Gorges said in a statement.
The company is also committed to developing offshore wind resources at scale in Guangdong, in order to boost clean energy capacity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
China Three Gorges said the massive Yangjiang project will be built in five phases. The first phase, which will have a capacity of 300 MW, was connected to the grid for power generation at the end of November 2019.
The second, third, fourth and fifth phases – with a combined capacity of 1.4 GW – “are kicking off simultaneously,” said China Three Gorges, “setting a record in China for offshore windfarms in terms of scale.”
As highlighted previously by OWJ, researchers at the Harvard John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China believe offshore wind could power much of the coastal area of China, but doubts have been expressed about the ability of Chinese turbines and cable manufacturers to keep up with the already huge scale of coastal provinces’ offshore wind plans.
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