China has committed heavily to developing its offshore wind power generating capacity and is currently planning to have 5 GW of offshore wind power installed by 2020. In 2017 alone it installed almost 1.2 GW of offshore wind capacity, bringing the cumulative total installed capacity to nearly 2.8 GW, bringing China to third position globally behind the UK and Germany.
However, the country is now faced by the challenge that all the promising wind farm sites within 10 kilometres of the shore have already been exploited. To boost capacity further and meet the 2020 target, China is having to explore locations that are further offshore. To this end, Huadong Engineering Corporation is planning a ground-breaking 1.1 GW offshore windfarm some 90 kilometres off the coast of Jiangsu Province in eastern China.
Huadong has contracted DNV GL to supply technical trainings, advice and support on their feasibility study on aspects of conceptual design and risk assessment for the project.
Traditional submarine high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) cables become extremely inefficient when transporting large amounts of electricity over such long distances. In contrast, high-voltage direct current systems allow power to be transmitted over large distances under the sea with minimal losses. Hence a key stage in the new project will be the creation of an offshore HVDC transmission system to export offshore power from the windfarm to the mainland, including offshore HVDC converter station, submarine cables and onshore HVDC converter station. This will be the first offshore Voltage-Source Converter HVDC system in China.
“Offshore HVDC transmission system is a new business for DNV GL China and the Asia Pacific region” said Haifeng Qi, President, Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited Renewable Energy Corporation. “So it is invaluable to be able to call on a partner such as DNV GL who brings global expertise in both HVDC technology and offshore engineering to the project. Their experience in these areas will be a critical factor in successfully delivering a major new windfarm so far from land to help China continue to lead the way in offshore wind generation”.
William Pan, Head of Offshore Wind APAC, DNV GL – Energy, added that in comparison with onshore HVDC technology, offshore wind HVDC has a unique specification and this requires the combination of both offshore wind and HVDC technology on the limited space, in order to satisfy safety and function requirement.
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