Winds of change sweep offshore power

British wind energy companies, for long the world leaders in the offshore segment with a total installed capacity of 7.9 GW (out of a global total of 18.8 GW), are looking to export their technologies to China.

For its part, China has been keen to exploit imported know-how to emerge as a global force in offshore energy generation.

FTI Consulting said China's installed capacity will surpass the UK as the world's leader in offshore wind power.

According to Jacobelli, the expected rise in capacity on the back of higher investment is no surprise at all. "As the technology gradually matures, and developers become more efficient in the construction process and installations, the price will progressively drop. There will be an increase in offshore wind power, which the government is keen to develop. The growth in offshore wind generation capacity should be gradual."

FTI Consulting expects China's cumulative offshore capacity to pull ahead of the UK after 2021, thus putting the country on course to becoming the world's biggest offshore wind market.

Soren Lassen, an offshore wind analyst at energy research and consultancy company Wood Mackenzie, said given the segment's rapid growth in both China and the UK, other countries will find it hard to keep up.

China's many energy behemoths are also eyeing the offshore wind market, including China Three Gorges Corp, which built and now operates the world's largest hydroelectric power plant, the Three Gorges Dam, and China General Nuclear Power Corporation.

According to China General Nuclear Power Group, it kicked off construction of an offshore wind-power project located off Nanpeng Island in Yangjiang, Guangdong province, last year. Its installed capacity of 400 MW will be the biggest in the country, and is expected to generate about 1.46 billion kilowatt-hour of electricity annually when it goes on stream in 2020.

According to Huang Xiaofei, the company's spokesman, the project will entail an investment of 8 billion yuan and includes a 220-kilovolt offshore booster station, a 35 kV collector cable system, a 220 kV undersea cable system and an onshore control center.

It will promote the development of offshore wind power and improve the clean energy structure of Guangdong province.

This is the company's third self-constructed offshore wind power project. The first one is in Rudong, Jiangsu province, and the second one is in Pingtan, Fujian province. The 400 MW project will have strategic significance for western Guangdong's industrial upgrade, and is also important for the region's economic and social development.

The company, a major investor in the domestic wind power market, said it will focus on further developing offshore wind power resources during the 2016-20 period.

It currently has wind farm and solar power assets in the UK, France, Belgium, Ireland and Netherlands. In July 2018, it acquired a 75-percent stake in North Pole Wind Power Project in Sweden, the largest onshore wind farm in Europe, from Australian energy company Macquarie Group and US-based General Electric Co.