POWER August 2016 - 45

WIND POWER
Time to Catch the Sea Breeze?
Offshore Wind Power Development
in China
After years of planning and sluggish development, 2016 may be the year that
offshore wind power development takes off in China. Once it does, the
market will be large.
Zeng Ming, Peng Lilin, Li Yuanfei, Wang Xin, and Liu Yang
O
ffshore wind power has a very important
role to play in easing power
shortages in coastal areas of China
and in responding to climate change effectively.
China's abundant offshore wind energy
resources, coupled with today's improved
technology and the support of national policies,
indicate that offshore wind farms will
become a rapidly growing energy market.
At the same time, the offshore wind power
equipment industry will become a significant
economic growth sector.
In 2016, China's offshore wind power
development is expected to accelerate after
years of preparations in both policy and
industry levels. This article analyzes the
current situation of offshore wind power development
in China as well as its development
potential and driving forces.
Status Quo
In the past decade, wind power has achieved
rapid development in China. Installed capacity
jumped from less than 75 MW in 2004 to 145
GW in 2015. Wind power's share of total installed
capacity has exceeded 7%, which means
wind power has become the third-largest power
source, behind thermal power and hydropower.
After many years of preparation and development
of policy and industry, China's
offshore wind power sector is expected to
accelerate, beginning in 2016. Specifically,
offshore wind power may start to move into
actual business operation at the end of this
year. According to the 12th Five Year Plan
of Wind Power presented by the National
Energy Administration of China, 5 GW
of offshore wind power was planned to be
operational by the end of 2015, increasing
to 30 GW by the end of 2020. However, as
Figure 1 shows, the 2015 target was missed
by 4 GW.
Offshore Wind Power Potential
Compared with inland, onshore wind power,
there are stronger and more stable wind reAugust
2016 | POWER
sources at sea, and offshore turbines have greater
unit capacity and higher utilization hours.
Meanwhile, offshore wind farms are closer to
load centers, which makes wind curtailment
less likely. Therefore, offshore wind power is a
certain direction for future development.
According to surveying and mapping by
China Meteorological Administration, the
amount of wind energy resources that can
be developed technically in China is about
500 GW in the range of 5 to 50 meters water
depth, as shown in Table 1 (areas for waterways,
fisheries, and other purposes, as well
as areas where strong and super typhoons
passed three times or more historically, are
excluded). Although the exploitable wind resources
offshore are only one-fifth of those
onshore, when you consider the rate of developable/developed
resources and the exploitable
resources per unit area, the potential of
offshore wind power is greater. Consequently,
the average annual growth rate is also expected
to be greater for offshore than onshore
development in the future.
Considering the advantages and the potential
of offshore wind power (Figure 2), both
the government and companies have started
to attach importance to its development and
construction.
Development and construction of offshore
wind facilities in China was relatively
slow in 2014 and 2015. The main reasons
included these:
■ Pre-approval of projects is complex due to
multiple management responsibilities be1.
China's offshore wind capacity. The 12th Five Year Plan of Wind Power planned
for 5 GW of offshore wind power by the end of 2015, but that goal was not reached. Source:
Chinese Wind Energy Association, www.cwea.org.cn
■ New installed capacity ■ Total installed capacity
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Table 1. Wind energy resources in China. Source: China Meteorological Administration,
www.cma.gov.cn
Area
Onshore: height of 70 meters
Offshore: height of 100 meters,
depth of 5-50 meters
www.powermag.com
Resource area (x
10,000 km2)
~960
39.4
Potential wind energy
development capacity (GW)
2,600
500
Developed
amount (GW)
124.00
0.82
45
MW
http://www.cwea.org.cn http://www.cma.gov.cn http://www.powermag.com

POWER August 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER August 2016

Contents
POWER August 2016 - Cover1
POWER August 2016 - Cover2
POWER August 2016 - Contents
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