The first two foundations for a potentially huge pipeline of offshore wind capacity to be installed by SPIC Guangdong Offshore Wind Power Ltd in China have been completed.
The Chinese developer could need as many as 500 foundations for offshore wind turbines having secured permits to install 3.2 GW of offshore wind capacity off China’s Guangdong province. The initial batch of foundations will be used on offshore windfarms near the rapidly growing Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Jieyang.
The foundations, which their designer Ramboll said are the heaviest built to date at 1,600 tonnes compared to the previous record of 1,300 tonnes, will be installed in a water depth of 37 m, which is also a record for a Chinese offshore windfarm.
In Guangdong province alone, China has ambitious plans to install 15 GW to 20 GW of offshore wind. In comparison, all of Europe currently has less than 20 GW wind power capacity installed.
SPIC Guangdong Electric Power Co Ltd chief engineer Zhang Yi said, “Guangdong is the province with the highest GDP in mainland China, and it is also one of the richest and the most populous in the nation. In this province we see increasing demand for energy as well as a demand to reduce air pollution. We can meet the demand from the population for clean energy with wind energy, which can now compete with coal and other fossil fuels. We need this windfarm now and we need it fast.”
Ramboll global marker director Søren Juel Petersen said, “Ramboll completed the design of the two monopiles super-fast so that the design and fabrication took less than five months, which is 2-3 times faster than usual.”
Ramboll has worked with offshore wind in China since 2004 and in 2015 was the first European consultancy commissioned with the design of one of the country’s largest offshore windfarms, SPIC Binhai North H1 in the Jiangsu province north of Shanghai. Since then Ramboll has won four other contracts in China.
|
