China Plans Mammoth Offshore Windfarm

By Julianne Geiger - Oct 21, 2022, 

• The Chinese city of Guangdong plans to start the of a massive 43.3 GW offshore wind farm.
• The location of the wind farm is ideal, with winds strong enough to run the turbines between 43% and 49% of the time.
• The wind farm's total production would equal the total power production of countries such as Poland and Argentina.

The Chinese city of Chaozhou in Guangdong has plans to begin construction on its massive 43.3 GW offshore wind farm within the space of a few years, according to the city’s most recent five-year plan.

The location of the wind farm is ideal, with winds strong enough to run the turbines between 43% and 49% of the time—a figure that is high for the industry. But it’s not just the utilization rate that is impressive. At 43.3 GW of power generating capacity, the offshore wind farm will be capable of churning out as much power as the entirety of Poland or Argentina.

An equally impressive statistic of this planned wind farm is likely its price tag—which wasn’t divulged.

For comparison, China added 16.9 GW of offshore wind capacity in 2021, according to Bloomberg. This one plant, set to be complete in just three years, would dwarf that by a factor of 2.5. China has the largest fleet of offshore wind turbines in the world, according to Bloomberg.

Just days ago, China’s President Xi Jinping said in a speech that the country’s shift to reach zero carbon emissions would be tempered with energy security in mind. “Based on China’s energy and resource endowments, we will advance initiatives to reach peak carbon emissions in a well-planned and phased way, in line with the principle of getting the new before discarding the old,” Jinping said earlier this week, suggesting that fossil fuels wouldn’t meet a hasty death at the hands of renewables at the expense of energy security.

China’s wind power prospects are nevertheless ambitious.

One of China’s wind turbine manufacturers, Goldwind, is in advanced talks to build a wind turbine factory in Brazil to service the local Brazilian market. China has also just finished production of a wind turbine that has the largest roto diameter in the world at 827 feet and is capable of single-handedly generating 63.5 million kWh per year and servicing 30,000 3-person households.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com