Climate change: How Chinese shipbuilding giant CSSC’s floating wind turbine will help advance the country’s decarbonisation drive
- The Fuyao turbine, weighing 4,000 tonnes, will be deployed to a site deeper than 50 metres near Luodousha island in southwestern Guangdong
- Some 80 per cent of global offshore wind resources are found in water deeper than 60 metres, where floating turbines are required
The success of China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) in designing, fabricating and assembling China’s largest floating wind turbine has marked a major step towards commercialising a key technology for climate change mitigation.
The world’s largest shipbuilder said its subsidiary, CSSC Haizhuang Wind Power, has broken the “foreign technology stranglehold” in so-called floating foundation wind turbines, as 90 per cent of its maiden product’s key components can be sourced domestically.
The Fuyao turbine will be deployed to a site deeper than 50 metres near Luodousha island in southwestern Guangdong, just north of the typhoon-prone Hainan Island, for pilot operation.
“This marked a key milestone for the Chinese industry’s foray into the far and deep seas, and has major significance for aiding the nation’s effort to achieve its goals to peak carbon emission before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060,” CCSC said in a statement issued May 27.
Some 80 per cent of global offshore wind resources are found in water deeper than 60 metres, where floating turbines are required, according to a report published in March by Brussels-based industry association Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).