China's first 18-MW offshore wind power project begins operation

China's first large-scale 18-megawatt offshore wind power project reached full-capacity operation on Thursday, a milestone expected to accelerate the development of larger-capacity and more cost-effective offshore wind energy.

The 2-million-kilowatt Yangjiang Fanshi offshore wind farm in south China's Guangdong Province, developed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), consists of two sub-projects each with a capacity of 1 million kilowatts. It features 33 ultra-large 18-megawatt offshore turbines, currently the largest single-unit capacity model deployed in batches in China.

Each turbine has a rotor diameter of 292 meters and a swept area of about 66,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of nine standard football fields. Large-scale deployment of these turbines effectively reduces the number of turbine positions, cutting costs for submarine cable laying, offshore foundation construction and sea area occupation.

"The Fanshi project has 131 offshore wind turbines installed, capable of delivering about 6.6 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually on average, with a single unit generating up to 56 million kilowatt-hours per year," said Chen Youdeng, project manager of CGN's Yangjiang offshore wind power project.

"At full load, one rotation of the rotor can generate 43 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to meet the daily power needs of an ordinary household for nine consecutive days,"  Chen said.