China's first offshore wind power station, located in Liaodong
Bay in the northeast Bohai Sea, was officially put into operation
on Wednesday.
The wind power station was built by the China National Offshore
Oil Corp. (CNOOC), the country's largest offshore oil producer,
with an investment of 40 million yuan (5.4 million U.S.
dollars).
It kicked off trial operation on Nov. 8, and has generated
200,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity by Nov. 26.
The generating unit was fixed to a jacket structure of the
CNOOC's Suizhong 36-1 oil field, which is 70 kilometers offshore in
the Bohai Sea, with a five-meter-long submarine cable linking the
unit with the central platform of the oil filed for power
supply.
"This is the first wind power station in the world designed for
power supply of offshore oil and gas fields," said Zhou Shouwei,
CNOOC's deputy general manager.
The unit is expected to reach an annual output of 4.4 million
kilowatt-hours, which is equal to saving 1,100 tons of diesel oil
annually and also the reduction of 3,500 tons of carbon dioxide and
11 tons of sulfur dioxide, according to Zhou.
The Chinese government has been promoting the use of renewable
energy, including wind power and solar power, amid efforts to shift
from heavy reliance on coal consumption.
China's installed capacities of wind power reached 2.3 million
kilowatt-hours in 2006, and is expected to hit 5 million by the end
of 2007.
The country's installed capacities of wind power are set to
reach 30 million kilowatt-hours by 2020, according to the
government plan.
China's offshore wind power capacities are almost three times
that of onshore capacities, said Wang Jingquan, an academician with
the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2007)
