China’s wind industry is pushing for a massive acceleration of offshore projects that would boost capacity nearly 40-fold by 2050 to deliver clean electricity to energy-hungry coastal cities.
China’s wind industry is pushing for a massive acceleration of offshore projects that would boost capacity nearly 40-fold by 2050 to deliver clean electricity to energy-hungry coastal cities.
The China Wind Energy Association, the sector’s leading industry group, published a letter of appeal at a conference over the weekend calling for offshore wind capacity growing to 100 gigawatts by 2025 and 1,000 gigawatts by 2050, it said in a press release. The country had about 26 gigawatts installed at the end of last year, the most in the world.
The plan is not a China’s wind industry official target, and Beijing has not set any long-term offshore wind capacity goals. Still, it comes after several local governments published ambitious plans in the hopes of boosting clean energy supply and drawing the lucrative building and installation work. At least 80 gigawatts of projects are already in various stages of development, Qin Haiyan, general secretary of the wind group, said at the conference, according to the release.
A more ambitious build-out would be a boon to China’s massive turbine manufacturers, such as Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co, Shanghai Electric Group Co, and Ming Yang Smart Energy Group Ltd. The companies have been improving technologies to build larger turbines and floating platforms so they can be placed in deeper water, Ming Yang chairman Zhang Chuanwei said at the conference, according to the association.
Offshore wind is more expensive than onshore, but it offers several ancillary benefits important to China as it seeks to keep its grid stable while adding copious amounts of clean energy to further its climate goals.
Turbines at sea would be close to China’s coastal megacities and do not require the thousands of kilometres of power lines needed to connect to massive wind farms in the west. Wind speeds also tend to be steadier at sea, so the turbines produce power for more hours in a day. There is enough breezy space within 200 kilometres of China’s coast for 2,250 gigawatts of turbines, said Chao Qingchen, director of the National Climate Center, according to the release.
Originally published at The Edhe Markets