World’s Biggest Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Developed in China

China’s CRRC Corporation Limited (CRRC) has developed the “most powerful” floating offshore wind turbine in the world, according to state news agency Xinhua.

The turbine was produced in Yancheng city in Jiangsu Province and has a 20-megawatt (MW) generating capacity.

The massive turbine has the ability to generate 62 million kilowatt hours of power annually, enough for roughly 37,000 households, the Spanish Wind Energy Association said. This will reduce carbon emissions by 62,000 tons and save 25,000 tons of coal.

It has a semi-submersible mooring system and floating platform with intelligent sensing and control technologies, enabling it to extend to deeper waters.

“Floating offshore wind turbines are a key technological trend shaping the future of wind energy development,” said Wang Dian, CRRC Qi Hang New Energy Technology Company’s deputy general manager, as Xinhua reported.

In the United States last year, the average newly installed wind turbine had a capacity of 3.4 MW.

“Higher capacity turbines mean that fewer turbines are needed to generate the same amount of energy across a wind plant — ultimately leading to lower costs,” the U.S. Department of Energy said.

China’s new independently developed wind turbine has a wind wheel with a 853-foot diameter and a swept area of 571,563.6 square feet, reported Xinhua. That’s approximately the size of seven average soccer fields.

The colossal new turbine includes customizable options that can be applied to differing water depths, providing more flexibility for deep-sea wind power operations.

In the past two decades, China has far outpaced other countries to become the leader in installed renewable energy capacity.

Last year, the country saw its renewable energy capacity surpass thermal power for the first time. Renewables now make up more than half of China’s installed energy generation capacity, Xinhua said.

In 2022, China’s solar capacity installations were approximately equal to the rest of the planet’s combined, Yale E360 reported. Then it doubled its additional solar in 2023.

“Today, China has more than 80 percent of the world’s solar manufacturing capacity. The extraordinary scale of China’s renewables sector output has driven down prices worldwide, and this is a key factor in reducing the cost barrier to renewable systems for poorer countries,” Yale E360 said.

China still has a big fossil fuel problem to tackle, however, if it wants to meet its goal of reaching peak carbon emissions by the end of the decade and becoming carbon neutral by 2060 — targets President Xi Jinping set in 2020 at the United National General Assembly.

“Renewables now account for half of China’s installed capacity, but there has also been a surge in permits for new coal-fired power plants, and China still generates about 70 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels. This means actual renewable energy use is lagging behind installed capacity,” Yale E360 noted.