A wind farm with a capacity of 43.3 gigawatts will be installed over 72 km off the coast of China before 2025.
This ambitious project is detailed in the “14th Five-Year Plan” of Chaozhou City in Guangdong Province, southern China, as reported by Wonderful Engineering on October 28.
A wind farm off the coast of China. (Photo: China Three Gorges Corporation).
The farm will span 10 km and include thousands of giant wind turbines, installed in waters ranging from 11 to 50 meters deep at two sites in the exclusive economic zone outside the territorial waters south of Chaozhou, known as Dong Guangdong Site No. 6 and 7.
Site No. 6 has a capacity of 10.8 GW, located about 72 km from shore at its closest point and 160 km at its furthest point, while Site No. 7 has a capacity of 32.5 GW and is situated 75 to 185 km from shore.
Upon completion, the wind farm will have a total capacity of up to 43.4 GW, surpassing the combined electricity output of all power plants in Norway, making it the largest wind farm in the world, breaking the previous record of 20 GW held by the Jiuquan wind farm (also in China).
For comparison, it takes about 3 million solar panels to generate one GW of electricity, which is enough energy to supply 300,000 households and power 100 million LED lights. This means that with a capacity of 43.3 GW, the new mega wind project could meet the consumption needs of 13 million households and illuminate 4.3 billion LED lights.
Thanks to its unique topography and windy location, the turbines of the farm can operate between 43% and 49% of the time, equivalent to 3,800 to 4,300 hours per year.
China currently accounts for 45% of the offshore wind capacity installed worldwide, according to recent data released by the Global Offshore Wind Forum (WFO). The country continues to expand its position as the largest offshore wind market in the world, with a total installed capacity of 24.9 GW, more than the combined total of the UK (13.6 GW), Germany (7.7 GW), and the Netherlands (3 GW).
