China’s largest offshore wind farm goes into operation

China’s largest affordable offshore wind farm went into operation and achieved grid-connected power generation with a full capacity, its operator State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC) said Friday.

The 450-megawatt project consists of 53 wind turbine units installed in the waters 28 kilometers off the coast of Rushan City in east China’s Shandong Province, with a total installed capacity of 1.5 million kilowatts. “For a large-scale offshore wind farm with large-capacity generator sets, our teams have followed the principles of using sea areas economically, saving construction costs and minimizing cable losses, and tackled technical problems with the use of 66 kV submarine cables throughout the farm to collect the electricity generated by each wind turbine. We have also designed and manufactured a modular offshore booster station in an innovative way, saving 190 hectares of sea use and 20 percent of construction cost for the station,” said Chen Lizhi, president of Shandong offshore wind power company with SPIC. The farm can generate 4.5 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity a year, saving 1.4 million tons of standard coal, and cutting emissions of ash, carbon monoxide and other waste gases by about 4.25 million tons annually.

Affordable wind power means that the price of wind power is equivalent to that of traditional coal-fired power, and no longer requires government subsidies.