Offshore Wind Turbines in 2025: China Continues Leading in Single-Unit Capacity, Vestas’s 15 MW Turbine Installed at Offshore Wind Farms

In offshoreWIND.biz‘s 2024 annual wind turbine overview, you could have read about the first 16 MW floating wind platform installed offshore and a 26 MW prototype under construction, both in China, and a 21 MW prototype being assembled in Europe. Wind turbine generator (WTG) technology did not stop progressing in 2025, with Chinese OEMs still leading capacity-wise, while in Europe, first offshore wind farms are now featuring 15 MW turbines and a 21+ MW model was installed onshore for testing.

In September 2025, Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) said that it had completed the installation of a 26 MW offshore wind turbine, which the Chinese company claims is the world’s largest in terms of single-unit capacity and rotor diameter.

The offshore wind turbine was installed at the Wind Power Equipment Testing and Certification Innovation Base in Dongying, Shandong province, China.

The unit features a rotor diameter of 310 metres and blades that measure 153 metres in length. It stands nearly 200 metres tall with a rotor sweep of 77,000 square metres, and is equipped with advanced anti-corrosion and typhoon-resistant technology.

Comprising over 30,000 components, the turbine utilises third-generation fully integrated semi-direct drive technology that combines the shaft system, gearbox, and generator. It is fully sealed to prevent salt spray corrosion and incorporates dual internal and external cooling systems.

The unit is engineered for offshore areas experiencing medium to high wind conditions, typically exceeding 8 metres per second, according to its developer.

Dongfang says the turbine offers a range of capacities from 20 MW to 26 MW. 

A couple of months earlier, Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC) and China Huaneng, a state-owned power company, launched a new prototype of a floating offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 17 MW.

In July 2025, the partners rolled out the nacelle for the 17 MW turbine at DEC’s factory in Fujian, China.

The wind turbine features a rotor diameter of 262 metres and has a swept area of approximately 53,000 square metres, and is expected to produce approximately 68 million kWh of renewable electricity per year, enough to supply around 40,000 households, according to DEC.

At the beginning of last year, Chinese state-owned CRRC installed what the company claims to be the world’s largest floating offshore wind turbine in Shandong Province.

On 11 January 2025, the company installed the 20 MW Qihang floating offshore wind turbine prototype at the Dongying wind power testing and certification innovation base in Shandong.

The Qihang floating wind turbine prototype has a diameter of 260 metres, equivalent to seven standard football fields, and a hub height of 151 metres. Each rotation of the unit can meet the electricity demand of a household for two to four days, saving about 25,000 tonnes of coal consumption and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 62,000 tonnes per year, according to CRRC.

Mingyang Smart Energy has unveiled plans to develop a massive 50 MW floating offshore wind turbine featuring a twin-head design similar to the company’s Ocean-X platform.

The wind turbine would use two 25 MW main engines supported by a V-shaped tower, similar to the design of the company’s Ocean-X platform, a 16.6 MW floating unit launched last year.

The turbine is planned to be installed in deep waters, featuring twin 290-metre rotors.

In July last year, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) announced that it had granted GE Vernova’s subsidiary Georgine Wind permission to build and operate a test turbine of up to 18 MW in Gulen municipality.

The project, which is part of a test programme to advance offshore wind technology, will feature a wind turbine with a maximum tip height of 275 metres and up to 250 metres in rotor diameter. The unit is planned to undergo testing for up to five years, after which it will remain on land and generate electricity for an additional 25 years.

GE revealed the next-generation Haliade-X turbine, which would have a capacity of 17-18 MW, in March 2023, but then dropped its development in 2024, saying it wanted to focus on a 15.5/16.5 MW platform.

In 2024, the company announced its plans to build a 15.5 MW prototype in Norway after it received funding approval from Enova, a government-backed agency.

The unit approved for testing by NVE is expected to have an annual electricity production of 55 GWh, which corresponds to the annual energy consumption of approximately 2,750 Norwegian households.

On 24 April 2025, the first of 64 Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbines was installed at EnBW’s He Dreiht project site offshore Germany, marking the first time Vestas’s flagship wind turbine has been installed at an offshore wind farm.

In the summer of 2025, the first Vestas 15 MW turbine was also installed at the Baltic Power offshore wind farm in Poland, developed by a joint venture between the Orlen Group and Northland Power.

Vestas installed the 15 MW prototype at the Østerild National Test Centre for large wind turbines in Western Jutland in December 2022, and saw the first commercial installation in 2024, when its V236-15.0 MW was erected in the Port of Thyborøn in Denmark, three months after the port ordered the company’s flagship model.

Siemens Gamesa has completed the installation of a 21.5 MW prototype with a 276-metre rotor at a test site in Denmark, according to media reports published in the first half of 2025.

The company made headlines in 2024 with reports saying the company was building a 21 MW offshore wind turbine prototype in the Østerild wind turbine test centre in Denmark.

In December 2024, a company spokesperson confirmed to offshoreWIND.biz that Siemens Gamesa was transporting a nacelle from its facility in Brande to the Østerild site, but declined to reveal any details about the turbine in question.

However, the company did confirm the installation in Østerild was a test facility partly funded by the European Commission. At the beginning of 2024, the wind turbine manufacturer received a EUR 30 million grant from the EU for a project that involves the installation, operation, and testing of “the world’s most powerful wind turbine prototype” at the Østerild National Test Centre.

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