Wind Power to Blow Strongly

China is expected to increase its total offshore wind-power capacity from 5,000 megawatts in 2015 to 30,000 megawatts by 2020, a senior official at a hydropower institute said.

"Shanghai as well as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Fujian provinces have already submitted their offshore wind-power blueprints. Their combined off-shore wind power capacity could reach 22,800 megawatts by 2020," said Wang Minghao, vice president of Hydropower Planning Research Institute, who spoke at the Offshore Wind China Conference yesterday.

The provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, Guangdong and Hainan as well as Tianjin and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are also studying plans to develop offshore wind-power projects, Wang added.

China is aggressively expanding its renewable energy consumption to reduce reliance on polluting fuels like coal and oil, and plans to increase the proportion of renewable energy to 15 percent of the country's overall energy mix.

The existing total capacity of China's offshore wind-power generation was not revealed but power capacity rose by 63 megawatts in 2009, according to observers.

China's first offshore wind power demonstration project--Shanghai Donghai Bridge offshore wind farm - has already been successfully installed with total installed capacity of 102 megawatts. It could meet the needs of over 200,000 Shanghai households when fully operational. It is also the first offshore wind farm outside Europe.

Bidding for the first round of the nation's offshore wind-power projects started last month and bids will end on September 12.

"The feasibility of the projects depends on the benchmark bidding prices that will be decided at the end of the bidding," said Wang.

Officials from Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and their Chinese counterparts pledged to boost cooperation in offshore wind-power, renewable energy as well as offshore oil and gas exploration.

The Norwegians are expected to sign a water management pact with China's Ministry of Water Resources next month.

(Shanghai Daily June 8, 2010)