China’s offshore wind industry hopes it can finally start fulfilling its long-promised potential after a decade of false starts that have left it firmly in the shadow of the country’s roaring onshore sector.

Last year, China added 592MW offshore, to give it a cumulative capacity of 1.63GW and pass Denmark to take third place in global rankings. That growth, along with a string of policy and market developments in favour of sea-based build-out, led the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) to declare 2016 the year “the Chinese offshore market began what many hope is the sector’s long awaited take-off”.