China plans to increase the combined installed capacity of its offshore wind power sector to 5 gigawatts by 2015 and 30 gigawatts by 2020, with investments totaling 100 billion yuan, according to the recent national wind power meeting hosted by the National Energy Administration.

Wind power is a type of new energy and also the fastest growing source power in the world, and offshore wind power represents today’s most advanced wind power generation technology.

Li Junfeng, deputy director of the Energy Studies Institute under the State Development and Reform Commission, said that China's fledging offshore wind power sector lacks experience and has virtually only one offshore wind power project in operation: the Shanghai Donghai Bridge.

The installed capacity of China’s offshore wind power sector stood at only 142,500 kilowatts at the end of 2010. China's offshore wind power sector is still in the initial period of development with three to four intertidal zone projects currently underway.

China possesses the basic capacities of offshore wind power design, construction and equipment manufacturing. With the advent of the 6-megawatt wind power generating set independently researched and developed by the Sinovel Wind Group, China has become the second country in the world after Germany that can independently manufacture a 6-megawatt wind power generation set.

China has already constructed a batch of pilot offshore wind power projects, and the 54 wind power generating sets under eight enterprises of China, including the Sinovel Wind Group, Goldwind Science and Technology and Shanghai Electric, have already had offshore wind power operation demonstrations. This means that experience has been accumulated for the future large-scale development of China's offshore wind power.

Recently, the National Energy Administration and State Oceanic Administration of China jointly issued the Rules for the Implementation of the Provisional Regulations on Offshore Wind Power Development, Construction and Management. The offshore wind power industry of China, the foundation for which has been solidly laid, is about to have a smooth journey very soon.

Source: People’s Daily