The world's first 20-megawatt offshore wind turbine installed in waters off East China's Fujian Province Photo: Courtesy of China Three Gorges Corporation

The world's first 20-megawatt offshore wind turbine was successfully installed in waters off East China's Fujian Province on Tuesday, marking a major breakthrough in the country's offshore wind power development.

It is the first time a 20-MW-class offshore wind turbine independently developed by China was successfully installed, China Central Television Station (CCTV) News reported, citing project developer China Three Gorges Corp.

The turbine is part of a national key research and development program, with major components independently developed and produced in China.

Significant advances have also been made in overall lightweight designing. The unit's weight per megawatt has been reduced by more than 20 percent compared with the industry average, effectively cutting installation complexity as well as construction costs, the report said.

The turbine is located more than 30 kilometers offshore in waters deeper than 40 meters. Construction faced multiple challenges, including a narrow installation window during the typhoon season, complex sea conditions and elevated risks associated with high-altitude operations, the report said.

The construction team deployed a fourth-generation installation vessel with a 2,000-ton lifting capacity. Supported by high-precision positioning and intelligent piling control systems, three 147-meter-long blades were hoisted to a height of 174 meters and precisely fitted onto the hub, completing assembly of the 300-meter-diameter rotor with a swept area equivalent to nearly 10 standard football fields.

Once connected to the grid, the single turbine is expected to generate 80 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to meet the yearly energy demand of about 44,000 households. It is also expected to save around 24,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 64,000 tons each year.

Industry analysts said the successful installation reflects a qualitative shift in China's offshore wind development—from scaling up capacity near shore to advancing toward deeper and farther-offshore waters with larger, more efficient units, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The project sets new benchmarks in offshore wind engineering and construction, Lin said, adding that as the world's largest energy producer and consumer, China is playing an increasingly important role in advancing both domestic and global green energy transitions through developing wind and solar power.

Last week, China's deepest-water offshore wind project in commercial operation was connected to the State Grid in the northern waters off the East China's Shandong Province, Science and Technology Daily reported.

The project relies on homegrown technologies, including high-precision positioning based on the Beidou satellite navigation system and extensive application of building information modeling (BIM) for construction simulation, enabling safer and more efficient offshore construction.

After completion, the project is expected to generate about 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, saving roughly 500,000 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 1.35 million tons per year.

China's rapid offshore wind development aligns with its broader energy shift toward low-carbon, green development. National Energy Administration (NEA) data show that by the end of November of 2025, China's total installed wind power capacity surpassed 600 million kilowatts, up 22.4 percent year on year, ranking the first globally for 15 consecutive years.

China now supplies around 70 percent of the world's wind power equipment and helped cut global wind power costs by more than 60 percent over the past decade, highlighting its growing role in driving global green energy transition, NEA data showed. 

Global Times