China’s Mingyang Smart Energy unveils massive offshore wind turbine

Revealed at the China Wind Power 2023 conference in Beijing last week, the MySE 22MW has a rotor diameter of 310 m and is designed for high-wind conditions where average wind speeds are 8.5 m/s – 10 m/s.

The company said the typhoon-resistant MySE 22MW “is suitable for fixed-bottom and floating applications.” Mingyang said the turbine is “set for development between 2024 and 2025.”

In recent months, Chinese companies have unveiled a succession of very large offshore wind turbines, as a debate rages in Europe about the optimal size of turbines and the effect on OEMs and on the supply chain of near-continuous growth in the size of turbines.

Concern has also been expressed that European manufacturers will be out-competed by huge Chinese wind turbines, and the EU is said to be considering an ‘anti-subsidy’ probe into the sector. The EU is also considering greater financial support for wind energy in Europe, where well-known manufacturers are struggling, despite the bloc’s big plans for the role of wind energy in the transition.

In January 2023, CSSC Haizhuang Wind Power confirmed the launch of an 18-MW offshore wind turbine, the H260-18.0MW, which has a rotor diameter of 260 m. Shortly afterwards, Mingyang Smart Energy also unveiled an 18-MW turbine, the MySE 18.X-28X, but both will be dwarfed in size by the latest unit from Mingyang.

The MySE 18.X-28X has 140-m blades and a rotor diameter of in excess of 280 m. It has a swept area of 66,052 m². With an average wind speed of 8.5 m/s, each turbine can generate 80 GWh of electricity a year.

At the time the 18-MW unit was unveiled, the company noted that compared to the installation of 13-MW wind turbines, the higher output of the MySE18.X-28X would reduce the number of turbines required for a 1-GW offshore windfarm by 18 units, significantly reducing capex costs. 

The company said the MySE 18.X-28X would “significantly reduce the levelised cost of energy of offshore wind,” a claim that applies even more so to the new, even larger unit it is developing.