China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) has had a busy end of November as the company reached milestones on three of its offshore wind projects, two of which were fully commissioned, adding 800 MW to China’s operational offshore wind capacity. CTG also completed the wind turbine installation on one of its offshore wind farms last month, bringing one more project closer to commercial operation.
On November 27, the Yangjiang Shapa Phase 2 offshore wind farm went into full operation, two years after its predecessor, Yangjiang Shapa Phase 1, delivered its first power .
Located in the waters west of Shapa, off the city of Yangjiang in Guangdong Province, the 400 MW project comprises 62 6.45 MW offshore wind turbines. The wind farm, which is delivering clean electricity to power the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, is expected to generate about 1.088 TWh annually, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 442,600 tonnes and saving about 346,000 tonnes of standard coal, according to CTG.
In July, China Three Gorges announced that its Shapa offshore wind project, having a total of five phases, had surpassed an installed capacity of 1 GW, making it China’s first gigawatt-range offshore wind farm. Once all the five phases are fully built, the Yangjiang Shapa project will have a total installed capacity of 1.7 GW.
The project’s phases two to five have been under construction simultaneously since the beginning of 2020.
At the end of the last month, CTG also commissioned one phase of another gigawatt-scale project currently under construction, the Jiangsu Rudong offshore wind development in China’s Yellow Sea, which comprises three areas: the 300 MW H8, the 400 MW H6, and the 400 MW H10.
China Three Gorges Renewables put into operation the 400 MW H6 phase, which consists of 100 4 MW wind turbines, on 29 November. The company expects to have the entire project grid-connected within this year and, once this is achieved, the 1.1 GW Rudong development will be able to produce 2.4 TWh of clean power annually.
The Rudong project features what is deemed the world’s largest offshore converter station , making the project also of great significance for the exploration of large-capacity, long-distance offshore wind power technology, according to CTG.
“The generated electricity will be transmitted through the flexible DC transmission cable featuring higher voltage class and longer transmission distance than any other counterpart in China. Flexible DC transmission, the most cutting-edge power transmission technology in the world, can address the deficiencies found in traditional long-distance AC power transmission” , the project owner said.
November also saw China Three Gorges completing the installation of all wind turbines at the Jiangsu Dafeng H8-2 offshore wind farm, which has 38 4.5 MW and 20 6.45 MW wind turbines.
Located in the northern sea of Maozhusha, Dafeng District, 72 kilometres from the coast, the 300 MW project is the farthest offshore wind farm to be built in China and is the country’s first project to use offshore high-voltage stations to facilitate long-distance power transmission.
With the installation of all wind turbines, the Jiangsu Dafeng project has entered the “sprint stage” towards full-capacity grid-connected power generation, according to CTG.