‘World’s First’ 20 MW Wind Turbine Installed Offshore

A 20 MW wind turbine was installed in the waters off southern Fujian, China, on 13 January as part of a research project. This is the first time a wind turbine with this output was installed at sea, both in China and in the world, according to China Three Gorges (CTG), which designed and built the wind turbine in cooperation with Goldwind.

The site where the 20 MW offshore wind turbine was installed is located more than 30 kilometres offshore, in water depths exceeding 40 metres.

The wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 300 metres and 147-metre-long blades, and a swept area equivalent to 10 standard football fields, with the hub height reaching 174 metres, equivalent to a 58-story building. The 20 MW model is expected to generate over 80 GWh of electricity per year, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of approximately 44,000 households, CTG said on 14 January.

The new model also has a lightweight design, with the weight per megawatt of the entire unit (including the nacelle, hub, and blades) being less than 40 tonnes, which is more than 20 per cent lower than the industry average, according to CTG. The wind turbine’s intelligent monitoring system features a multi-dimensional perception and early safety warning system, with integrated LiDAR and blade root load sensors, which ensures autonomous and safe operation of the unit in unattended offshore scenarios, CTG says.

The 20 MW model’s offshore installation follows the deployment of the world’s first 16 MW offshore wind turbine in the Pingtan waters of Fujian in 2023, also a project by CTG and Goldwind.

The two companies and Mingyang Smart Energy are closely following each other in the new single-unit capacity installations.

Mingyang installed its 16 MW offshore wind turbine prototype shortly after CTG and Goldwind in 2023, and in 2024, the company installed a 20 MW prototype at an onshore test site in Hainan, China. 

The 20 MW turbine was installed as part of the Renewable Energy Technology project under the National Key Research and Development Programme and was selected into the fifth batch of major technological equipment for the first set in the energy field by the National Energy Administration. Under the guidance and support of the National Energy Administration and the Fujian Provincial Development and Reform Commission, it was jointly designed, constructed, and demonstrated by the Three Gorges Group and Goldwind Technology.

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