A city in southern China is planning an offshore wind farm bigger than all of the power plants in Norway combined.
Chaozhou, in Guangdong province, intends to start work on the 43.3-gigawatt project before 2025, according to a copy of the city’s five-year plan posted on industry publication bjx.com. The wind farm will be built between 75 and 185 kilometers (47 and 115 miles) off the city’s coast on the Taiwan Strait.
The area has unique topographical features that mean wind will be strong enough to run the turbines 3,800 to 4,300 hours a year, or 43% to 49% of the time, an unusually high utilisation rate. The plan didn’t say how much the project would cost.
China set a record by adding 16.9 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity last year, and the country now has the largest fleet of offshore wind turbines in the world. Utilities and local governments continue to pursue ambitious renewable build-out plans as costs fall relative to expensive coal and natural gas, and as President Xi Jinping keeps the nation on course to zero out emissions by 2060.
Earlier this year, a city in neighboring Fujian province proposed a 1 trillion yuan ($138 billion) project that would include 50 gigawatts of offshore wind.
Norway had 38 gigawatts of installed capacity as of 2021, according to BloombergNEF data.
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