Offshore wind in Asia made another step-up in scale as the 900MW Jieyang complex off China became the region’s largest project yet to enter construction.

Developer State Power Investment Corp (SPIC) started work earlier in December on the project, off the coast of Guangdong province.

The 900MW complex comprises three sub-projects – of 150MW, 400MW and 350MW – scattered in the sea off Jieyang, a city east of Guangdong and one of the two key offshore wind spots of the province.

The first stage of the complex, of 550MW, is slated to commence operation in 2021, while the rest will enter service around 2022-2023, according to an SPIC announcement. The total investment is estimated at 18bn yuan ($2.63bn).

Jieyang becomes the largest wind project under construction in Asia. But the record might not last for long, as other Chinese developers are ready to unleash larger plans in nearby waters.

One of SPIC's rivals China Three Gorges (CTG), for example, recently secured approvals to develop three offshore projects of 1GW each in Yangjiang, a city west of Guangdong and another major wind spot.

China General Nuclear (CGN) is scheduled to build four wind farm of the same size, two in Yangjiang and two others in Jieyang. Most of the 1GW projects are looking to start construction around 2020.

Separately, SPIC also received initial approval in December for a 1.7GW offshore complex, including a 1.2GW and a 500MW project in deep-water sites off Jieyang.

Outside of mainland China, Danish offshore wind pacesetter Orsted is about to close a power purchase agreement with Taipower to build two offshore wind project off Changhua, totaling 900MW. The Indian and Korean governments have also both unveiled plans to develop 1GW-scale offshore wind complexes.

SPIC’s Jieyang project heralds an offshore wind “great leap forward” in Guangdong province, which under a draft plan released this April plans to construct 23 offshore wind farms totaling 66.85GW – a figure three-times current global operating capacity.

To meet that, local governments in Guangdong have green-lighted new projects in startling pace in 2018, collectively signing off over 30GW of projects so far.

Notably, the approved capacity includes at least twelve “nearshore deep-water” sites totaling 12.5GW. The 35-50-metre zones are believed to provide opportunities for floating wind.

Most of Guangdong’s new projects, about 27GW, received approval in December, a move meant by the local government to ensure offshore developers secure a feed-in tariff of Chinese yuan 0.85 per kilowatt hour and exempt them from the price-competitive wind allocation that will begin in 2019.

The move sparked concern over the increased financial burden on a state-run renewable energy fund that pays for renewable subsidies in China, but had mounted a deficit of more than 100bn Chinese yuan by this June.

Wind

Asian offshore wind scales up as China starts building 900MW