Bureau Veritas Addresses Risks in China’s Offshore Wind Industry

Risk control is a major task for offshore wind power development in China due to great difficulties and risks, as well as the uniqueness of domestic offshore projects, Bureau Veritas said after its seminar on offshore wind power in October in Beijing.

According to Shi Pengfei, an industry expert who attended Bureau Veritas’ seminar, the approval process of China’s offshore wind power projects is relatively slow. Four offshore wind power concession projects that finished tenders in 2010, with a total capacity of 1 million kilowatts, were not approved until 2013. In addition, Shi Pengfei said: “Due to the soft soil foundation in most part of the seabed in China and the small area of wind farms, wind turbines are densely distributed, exerting great wake effect. It will lead to problems such as fatigue and vibration in the generator unit. Currently, the design life of a wind farm is 20 years, but in China, it is often set to 25 years, as costs of investment have to be taken into account.”

Li Wenjiang, General Industry Director for Greater China, Industry & Facilities Division of Bureau Veritas, said that many offshore wind power technologies in China are immature, characterized by the technological immaturity in wind turbines, installation, as well as operation and maintenance, which may bring huge risks to the whole project, and it is also the biggest risk for investors. In addition, there have been no laws, regulations or standard systems applicable to offshore wind power, and the existing regulations on marine engineering are mainly for governing offshore development of oil and gas. 

Due to its late start, and the absence of relevant laws and regulations, offshore wind power is still a “high-risk industry”, according to Bureau Veritas.

“Without a systematic process, any problems encountered have to be solved through discussion. Many generator units are imported from overseas, but the wind power conditions in other countries are fairly different from those in China; the seabed in China is mostly soft soil foundation, which makes it even more difficult for offshore construction. Besides, the offshore wind power equipment requires extremely high-level sealing conditions and anti-corrosion measures as corrosion is one major challenge to offshore wind power. In our on-site visits, we found that certain areas of coastal and offshore wind farms are subject to major corrosion damage,” said Tian Lei, Renewable Energy BU Manager at Bureau Veritas China.

In spite of so many risks, with the ever-decreasing onshore wind power resources, industry experts believe that the offshore wind power industry has become an irresistible trend. Shi Pengfei said: “Now the development strategy of China’s offshore wind power industry has shifted from ‘vigorous promotion’ to ‘steady development’. A number of offshore wind power projects with a capacity of 10 million kilowatts have been placed on the docket, which is our biggest opportunity.”

Li Wenjiang said that in addition to its natural advantages of offshore wind power, another reason that Bureau Veritas believe in its future is that it is closer to China’s economically developed coastal areas, such as Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong. Therefore, unlike the onshore wind power, offshore wind power neither requires long-distance power transmission to the consumption area, nor has to be bothered by wind power curtailment.

Although there exist some problems and risks in the development of offshore wind power, with the technology advancement and less onshore wind power resources in China, Tian Lei expressed optimism about the prospect of offshore wind power: “Offshore wind power is bound to be the general trend.”

Since its entry into China’s wind power business in 2003, Bureau Veritas has been focusing on the onshore wind power services. However, with the expansion of China’s offshore wind power market, Bureau Veritas said it also keeps up to boost its presence in this area.