Offshore wind power does not equal land-based wind power

As the economically exploitable wind resources on the land are becoming less and less, global wind farm construction has been developing from land to offshore. Compared with land-based wind power, the energy efficiency of offshore wind power is 20% higher than that of land-based wind farms. %. According to statistics, in the past 2009, the global offshore wind power showed an explosive growth trend, and the global installed capacity of offshore wind power was 689 MW, a year-on-year increase of 100%, much higher than the 30.1% increase in onshore wind power.

Under this background, due to the similar geography and natural conditions of the rapidly developing countries of offshore wind power in the eastern coastal regions of China and Europe, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark, the economy is developed and the power grid capacity is large, but there is a shortage of conventional energy, and primary energy mainly depends on the input of other provinces or In terms of imports, China has also formulated the basic ideas for the future development of offshore wind power. In the future, relying mainly on the “Three Norths”, eastern coastal areas, and offshore wind energy-rich regions, the planning and construction of wind power plants will be carried out in accordance with the large-scale development methods of “building large bases and integrating into large power grids”. Offshore wind power development will inevitably form a new round upsurge.

The same is true. In recent years, the National Energy Administration has accelerated the construction of large-scale wind power bases in the coastal areas of China, launched plans for the construction of tens of kilowatt-class offshore and intertidal wind power bases in the coastal areas of Jiangsu Province, and started preparations for the construction of multiple offshore wind farms. . In June this year, China's first offshore wind power concession tender started, attracting many wind power giants to participate in bidding.

The surging tides and development prospects of offshore wind power also mean huge market demand for related equipment manufacturing. At present, 3MW-5MW units are the mainstream of offshore wind turbines, and its suppliers are mainly Vestas, Siemens, GE, REpower, and China Huarui Wind Power. These companies only have a total capacity of only several hundred megawatts per year. The market outlook is very impressive.

Therefore, for the development of wind power in China, the development of wind turbines with independent intellectual property rights has enormous economic benefits. According to statistics, by 2020, the installed capacity of offshore wind power in China will reach 15-20 million kW. According to the average annual new installed capacity of offshore wind power installed capacity of 1.5 million kW after 2010, compared with imported wind turbines, the adoption of domestically-made wind turbines can reduce the investment by about 30%, and can save about 4.5 billion yuan annually. The only domestic wind farm construction is. The direct investment saved is more than 50 billion yuan.

Faced with the tremendous business opportunities in the field of offshore wind power equipment investment, industry experts have timely reminded that offshore wind power is different from onshore wind power and should be alert to the phenomenon of “oceanization” of onshore wind power.

This reminder comes from Zhou Fengqi, former director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the China Renewable Energy Planning and Development Project Management Office. He explained that, compared with land-based wind power, offshore and intertidal wind turbines are installed in the sea or in the intertidal zone, and their environmental conditions are very different from those on the land. Offshore wind power technology is far more complicated than wind power on land. Research on resource characteristics, research on conditions of the sea (such as comprehensive assessment of currents, waves, tidal conditions, seabed conditions, erosion, etc.), micro-site selection, offshore unit R&D, salt spray corrosion, basic design and construction, grid access, units Control and inter-tidal unit transportation and installation technologies are significantly different from land-based wind power.

Therefore, in the development of offshore wind power, the technological process developed for onshore wind power equipment cannot be simply transplanted. “First of all, China does not currently have a systematic detailed assessment report of offshore wind resources. Such reports require at least two years of observations of wind energy resources as support. However, at present, no one department can provide such data.” One industry source said.