The world's first offshore wind turbine with power generation capacity of 16 megawatts operates in East China's Fujian offshore wind turbine field on July 19, 2023. Photo: Xinhua

The world's first offshore wind turbine with power generation capacity of 16 megawatts has become operational in East China's Fujian offshore wind turbine field, a breakthrough in deep sea wind turbine manufacturing that has reached world-leading levels, China Media Group (CMG) reported on Wednesday. 

The turbine is 152 meters high, equivalent to the length of three Long March-5 carrier rockets. Each blade weighs 54 tons and is 123 meters long, and the total sweep area of three blades is nearly 50,000 square meters, equivalent to the area of seven standard football fields.

Compared with the current widely used offshore wind turbine with a capacity of 8 megawatts, the Fujian wind turbine can save more than 35 percent of sea area.

According to calculations based on wind statistics for the sea area, a single wind turbine can generate more than 66 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, which can satisfy the annual power demand of 36,000 three-member households, save about 22,000 tons of coal each year and avoid about 54,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the China News Service reported. 

The installation of the wind turbine was completed on June 28, facilitated by China's most advanced self-lifting and self-propelled integrated wind power installation platform Baihetan, with a lifting capacity of 2,000 tons, representing the nation's progress in the cutting-edge installation technology. 

China provides nearly 60 percent of global wind turbine equipment. As of the end of 2022, China had exported 11.93 million kilowatts of wind turbines. During the period, China's capacity of offshore wind turbines reached 30.51 gigawatts, accounting for 53 percent of global market share, CMG reported. 

In the first half of 2023, China's total generated power hit 4.17 trillion kilowatt-hours, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, the National Bureau of Statistics revealed on Monday. Wind power increased by 16 percent year-on-year. 

Global Times