China has brought its first large offshore wind project built around 18-megawatt (MW) turbines into full operation, marking a major step in the country’s push toward higher-capacity offshore power generation.
China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) announced the milestone on Thursday for the Fanshi offshore wind power project in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province. The project is designed to supply electricity to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area while supporting China’s expansion of large offshore wind farms.
The Fanshi project contains 131 wind turbines and is located about 50 miles (81 kilometers) offshore. Among them are 33 ultra-large turbines in the 18-MW class.
The deployment makes the project the world’s largest large-scale cluster of offshore turbines using such a high single-unit capacity, according to CGN. The project demonstrates how larger turbines can increase electricity production while reducing the number of turbine positions required across an offshore site.
Each 18-MW turbine has a rotor diameter of 958 feet (292 meters). Its swept area covers about 66,000 square meters, or roughly 16.3 acres. CGN compares that area with the size of nine standard soccer fields.
The scale of the machines allows each turbine to produce substantial amounts of electricity from a single offshore position.
Under full-load conditions, one rotation of an 18-MW turbine’s rotor can generate about 43 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. CGN says that amount is enough to cover the electricity needs of an ordinary household for about nine days.
A single turbine can produce up to 56 million kWh of electricity annually, according to the company.
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