Offshore wind power farm to be built in Jiangsu (China)

www.evwind.es
7 February 2010

Construction of the offshore wind energy station will begin in the coastal waters of Dongtai, Jiangsu province. With a coastline of 85 kilometers, Dongtai has many mud flats. Covering an area of 150 square kilometers, the third phase of the wind energy project will be equipped with 84 3.6 MW offshore wind turbines located to the south of Dongsha Island. He Dexin, president and researcher of the Chinese Wind Energy Association, disclosed that China will be building 10 GW wind energy bases in five locations, including coastal Jiangsu, to increase its capacity for wind energy generation.

According to studies by meteorological departments, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have the greatest sea wind energy potential in the whole country, but wind energy output in Zhejiang is not stable because the province is more prone to typhoons. Jiangsu enjoys much better conditions, said He Dexin. It was precisely because of their great wind energy potential that coastal and offshore regions occupy a place in China's plan to build several 10 GW wind energy bases across the country. The "Offshore Three Gorges" in Jiangsu will be China's biggest offshore windfarm base.

According to Li Zhenchu, a member of the Nanjing Wind Power Equipment Industry Association, Nanjing as an important economic centre in the Yangtze River Delta has a fairly well-developed wind energy equipment industry chain, with 34 units engaged in the research and development of the necessary equipment. It has adopted the wind energy industry as one of its 10 major industry chains for future development. Construction on the First Phase of the Rudong project began in August 2004, with an investment of nearly 800 million RMB (US $96 million). The windfarm currently has an installed capacity of 100 MWs (MW) and is expected to start production at the end of this year, with annual electricity generation of 230 GW-hours (GWh).

The Second Phase of the project has also begun, with a similar investment and installed capacity. Developers expect the project to be completed in the first half of 2007, with an annual output of 224 GWh. Local authorities plan to invest another 500 million RMB ($60 million) and increase the capacity of this phase to 150 MW. The Third Phase of the project, with a projected installed capacity of 800 MW, is currently undergoing assessments for its viability, but is expected to see an increase in investments from 6 billion RMB to 8 billion RMB (US $1 billion). If all three phases are completed according to plan, the Rudong windfarm will be one of the world's largest wind energy project built to date, with a total capacity amounting to 1,050 MW.

Jiangsu Province, located in the Yangtze River Delta region that also harbors Zhejiang Province and the city of Shanghai, is a major industrial and commercial base and one of China's biggest power consumers and shortage sufferers. Construction of the Rudong windfarm is key to easing the region's energy tensions and powering its economic growth. The potential for wind energy development is huge, as the province is blessed with 22 GW of potentially exploitable wind resources, nearly one-tenth of China's total. Rudong County is an ideal location for harnessing wind from the sea, with its 106-kilometer shoreline and 7,941 hours a year of effective wind speed.