Hundred meters in the sky, "blue energy" surges
2024-08-11
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The offshore booster station of the Three Gorges Fuqing Xinghua Bay offshore wind farm. Photo by Shi Chenjing, a reporter from Fujian Daily
Southeast Net reported on August 9 (Fujian Daily reporter Lin Shuxia Lin Xia)
On the 8th, the Xinghua Bay on the southeast side of Jiangyin Peninsula in Fuqing was calm. The sea is vast, and 59 "white giant towers" stand tall here, which can produce up to tens of millions of kilowatt-hours of "green electricity" every day.
The reporter took a ferry to the sea, and the wind turbines were within reach. On the side, Cheng Shuangbao, manager of the power operation department of Fuqing Strait Power Generation Co., Ltd. of Fujian Company of Three Gorges Group, introduced loudly: "Look, this is the Three Gorges Fuqing Xinghua Bay Offshore Wind Farm Project. Before 2017, the single-unit capacity of mainstream offshore wind turbines in China remained below 5 megawatts. The Three Gorges Group built the world's first international high-power prototype test wind farm in the first phase of the Xinghua Bay project, selecting 14 wind turbines of 5 megawatts and above produced by 8 well-known wind turbine manufacturers at home and abroad to compete on the same stage, and selecting the most advanced offshore wind power equipment manufacturers to settle in the industrial park. Fuqing Xinghua Bay is therefore known as the Olympic arena for offshore wind turbines."
Cheng Shuangbao, who is a 50-year-old from Wuhan, Hubei, is a guest commentator. He said that he has been in this wind farm for 2,000 days. At an altitude of 100 meters, he witnessed the development of the Xinghua Bay Offshore Wind Farm Project, which is like the Olympic spirit, faster, higher and stronger. "In 2018, the Three Gorges Fuqing Xinghua Bay Offshore Wind Farm Phase I (prototype test wind farm) project had a total of 14 positions, of which 3 were imported; but the 45 wind turbines installed in the Phase II project in 2021 are all domestically produced."
On weekdays, Cheng Shuangbao's main job is to climb into the engine room more than 100 meters above the ground to check the wind turbine's hydraulic pitch system, main control system, gearbox, generator, etc. He has to go out to sea for inspection 3 to 5 times a week, and sometimes he has to go on the wind turbine twice a day for inspection and maintenance. "The wind turbine is like the human body, with more than 2,000 parts inside, and no part can go wrong." Cheng Shuangbao said.
The annual average wind speed in Fujian's coastal areas exceeds 9 meters per second, and the available hours of offshore wind power reach 3,500 to 4,000 hours, providing good natural conditions for the application and promotion of large-capacity wind turbines.
In June 2015, China Three Gorges Corporation signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Fujian Provincial Government, taking a bold step towards exploring “turning wind into treasure”.
On a deserted beach, the Fujian Three Gorges Offshore Wind Power International Industrial Park came into being. Since 2016, the Three Gorges Group has gradually built a world-class offshore wind power industry cluster integrating technology research and development, equipment manufacturing, testing and certification, construction and installation, and operation and maintenance.
In recent years, many data generated by the industrial park have interpreted the innovative momentum of "faster, higher, stronger": In September 2019, my country's independently developed 8MW and 10MW units were successively put into production, historically increasing my country's offshore wind turbine capacity to "double digits"; In February 2022, the 13MW unit was put into production, setting a record for the largest single-unit capacity and largest impeller diameter wind turbine in Asia at that time; In 2023, the world's first 16MW offshore wind turbine was installed.
Today, there are more strong players active in this arena: Goldwind Science & Technology, Dongfang Wind Power, CRRC Corporation Limited, China Hydropower Engineering Bureau No. 4, LM Blades and other five companies that have settled in the Fujian Three Gorges Offshore Wind Power International Industrial Park are all key companies in the domestic and even global offshore wind power industry chain.
Clean energy is no longer synonymous with "expensive". "In 2017, the bidding price of offshore wind turbines was still around 8,000 yuan per kilowatt, but it has now dropped to around 3,000 yuan," said Sheng Lei, head of the Fujian Three Gorges Offshore Wind Power International Industrial Park.
