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Chaozhou in China’s Guangdong Province is building an offshore wind farm that will provide more power than all the power plants of Norway.
According to the city’s five year plan, published online, the city plans to begin work on the offshore wind farm of 43.3 gigawatts (GW) before 2025. The cost of the offshore wind farm is not disclosed in the plan.
The wind farm will be built by Chaozhou between 75 to 185 km from the city’s coast on the Taiwan Strait. The wind farm will be more than 10km long and run on the Taiwan Strait, where wind is strong enough to power turbines.
Bloomberg writes that the area is unique because of its topographical characteristics. This means the wind will be strong enough for the turbines to run 3,800 to 4,300 hours per year. That’s 43% to 49% of the time. It is an unusually high utilization rate.
Renewable energy is a core component of President Xi Jinping’s mission to shift away from carbon-emitting power source and become a superpower in renewable energy.
During his opening address to Congress on 16 Oct, he stated that “We will work active and prudently towards the goals of reaching maximum carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.”
China has added 17GW offshore wind generation capacity to its offshore wind generators in 2021, more than any country combined in the past five years.
