CHINA STARTS OFFSHORE’S BIGGEST

World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Begun by China
Susan Kraemer, October 23, 2010 (Clean Technica)

"China, which shot to world leadership in turbine production after passing renewable energy legislation…[and] local construction mandates in 2005, has begun building the world’s largest off-shore wind farm in Bohai Bay…[three] hours from Beijing.
The engineering design and construction of what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm at 1,000 MW…is being undertaken by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC)...

"…[Offshore oil and offshore wind technology] share some of the same technical and engineering issues. Stat-Oil in Norway is also investing in offshore wind development, because many of the engineering solutions found to develop offshore oil, are also applicable to the development of offshore wind, like building platforms in deep sea."

An earlier offshore project in China under construction (click to enlarge)

"Once complete, in 2020, the Bohai Bay wind farm…will be the largest off-shore wind farm in the world, at 1,000 MW. The current world’s largest offshore wind farm…[the Thanet project off the east coast of England] just started sending power to the grid in September from a 300 MW array of turbines in the North Sea.

"To build the massive infrastructure needed, nearby Tianjin has received an investment of $2.2 billion from the Chinese government. The potential is for a staggering 750 Gigawatts of offshore wind power off the coast of China, more than twice the potential 330 GW off the Atlantic coast of the US, which itself would power the East Coast twice over."