阳江海上风电并网装机801.66万千瓦 居全国地级市首位Yangjiang's offshore wind power grid-connected installed capacity reaches 8.0166 million kilowatts, ranking first among prefecture-level cities nationwide

On September 24, with the full-capacity operation of the CGN Yangjiang Fanshi Offshore Wind Power Project, the connected installed capacity of offshore wind power in Yangjiang, Guangdong reached 8.0166 million kilowatts, accounting for about 55.2% of Guangdong Province, ranking first among prefecture-level cities in the country in terms of grid-connected scale. It took Yangjiang nine years to reach this position from the approval of a single offshore wind farm. According to local plans, Yangjiang is accelerating the construction of the nation’s first ten-million-kilowatt-level offshore wind power base.

Along with the growth in installed capacity, an industrial chain centered around offshore wind power is gradually forming. Manufacturing segments such as complete machines, blades, tower tubes, and submarine cables are clustering locally. By 2025, the output value of enterprises in Yangjiang’s offshore wind power equipment manufacturing industry chain is expected to exceed 18.7 billion yuan, an increase of about 59% year-on-year. Today, the local industry layout is being extended to green hydrogen, green computing power, and low-carbon manufacturing. Recently, the 2026 Greater Bay Area Science Forum Green Energy Industry Technology Innovation Sub-forum and the Greater Bay Area Green Energy Conference were held on Hailing Island in Yangjiang, showing that the development space brought by offshore wind power has expanded from energy project construction to equipment manufacturing, technology research and development, and energy consumption.

Yangjiang is developing offshore wind power, primarily supported by natural conditions. The local coastline stretches 504.35 kilometers, with a sea area of 11,900 square kilometers. At a height of 80 meters above sea level, the annual average wind speed ranges from 6.5 to 8.0 meters per second, providing a resource base for large-scale development. Xu Xiaomin, head of the CGN Guangdong Yangjiang Offshore Wind Power Base, stated that Yangjiang's abundant wind energy resources and favorable absorption conditions create advantageous conditions for large-scale offshore wind power development.

In September 2017, the CGN Yangjiang Nanpeng Island Offshore Wind Power Project was approved, marking the start of Yangjiang's promotion of large-scale offshore wind power development. Subsequently, energy companies such as China Three Gorges, CGN, and Guangdong Power have successively established their presence. In November 2019, the first offshore wind turbine in Yangjiang was connected to the grid and began generating electricity. In 2018, Guangdong issued an offshore wind power development plan, raising the planned capacity of Yangjiang offshore wind farms to 10 million kilowatts and supporting the construction of a full offshore wind power industry chain base in Yangjiang through subsequent policies.

In February 2020, the Yangjiang Shapa Phases II to V offshore wind power projects by Three Gorges New Energy, with a total capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts, started construction simultaneously. Subsequently, projects in areas such as Qingzhou and Fanshi continued to be built, and supporting grid projects were gradually improved, marking a shift for Yangjiang offshore wind power from individual project development to large-scale construction. Offshore construction is affected by sea conditions, typhoons, and operational windows, and the projects also involve supporting conditions such as sea use, ports, construction vessels, and grid connections. The continuous advancement of multiple projects helps create relatively stable construction demand. According to locally published plans, the total planned installed capacity of Yangjiang offshore wind power has reached 20 million kilowatts; in July 2026, Yangjiang launched the competitive allocation of seven offshore wind farm projects, including Sanshandao Phases VII to XIII, with a total installed capacity of 7 million kilowatts.

Yangjiang's approach is to rely on the Guangdong (Yangjiang) International Wind Power City, introducing manufacturing enterprises while promoting offshore wind power development. Complete machine companies such as Mingyang and Goldwind, as well as upstream and downstream projects like blades, castings, towers, and submarine cables, have gradually been established, and the industrial layout increasingly covers resource development, equipment manufacturing, research and design, inspection and certification, and operation and maintenance services. Components of offshore wind turbines, such as blades and towers, are large in size and have high requirements for transportation, storage yards, and hoisting conditions. Organizing production along the coast and shipping through dedicated ports helps reduce overland transportation of large equipment. Therefore, dedicated ports, export hubs, and testing platforms have become important parts of the manufacturing layout. As local enterprises enter overseas markets in Europe, Southeast Asia, and other regions, the ports also take on the role of equipment export.

The projects under construction and operation in the Yangjiang sea area provide a window to observe technological changes. The CGN Yangjiang Fanshi Project, which was fully commissioned on September 24 with a total installed capacity of 2 million kilowatts, has become the first domestic renewable energy project to deploy 18-megawatt ultra-large offshore wind turbines on a large scale. The increase in turbine capacity means that the number of units can be reduced for the same installed capacity, creating conditions to lower costs related to foundation construction and installation. However, it also places higher demands on blades, drive systems, hoisting equipment, and operational reliability.

The wind farm extends into the deep sea, further increasing the difficulty of power transmission. On September 27, the first batch of five units at the Three Gorges Yangjiang Qingzhou Five and Seven offshore wind farms were connected to the grid. The project is about 70 kilometers offshore, with a total installed capacity of 2 million kilowatts. The electricity generated by the wind turbines is transmitted to the offshore converter station 'Heart of Offshore Wind', where it is stepped up and converted, and then sent to the land through a ±500 kV subsea DC cable. This project combines large-scale offshore wind power development with flexible DC transmission, providing practical engineering experience for power delivery from more distant sea areas. The project demand has also extended from the production of wind turbines and blades to subsea cables, transmission equipment, system integration, and operation and maintenance.

After the expansion of the industrial scale, the importance of research, development, and verification capabilities has increased accordingly. At the press conference of the conference, Han Ding'an, Director of the Yangjiang Science and Technology Bureau, introduced that Yangjiang has two provincial laboratories: the Yangjiang Offshore Wind Power Laboratory and the Yangjiang Alloy Materials Laboratory. The city has established a total of 407 provincial and municipal science and technology innovation platforms, among which the Offshore Wind Power Laboratory has been approved to build the Guangdong Provincial Laboratory Smart Offshore Wind Power Concept Verification Center. Conducting testing and verification based on the local wind farm helps shorten the distance for technology to move from research and development to engineering application, and also provides conditions for equipment companies to improve typhoon resistance, corrosion protection, and operation and maintenance solutions.

Beyond wind power development and equipment manufacturing, Yangjiang is trying to use green electricity to attract new industrial investment. In April 2025, the National Energy Administration approved support for Yangjiang to explore the construction of high-proportion green electricity supply parks, and the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission approved support for Yangjiang to build a green energy demonstration industrial park, focusing on the development of industries such as power batteries, green hydrogen, ammonia, methanol and equipment, and renewable energy vehicle components; in March 2026, Yangjiang Binhai New Area (Yangjiang High-tech Zone) was selected as one of Guangdong's first zero-carbon park construction sites. Green computing power is one of the directions, and Yangjiang has already introduced projects such as Alibaba Cloud Green Intelligent Computing and is promoting the construction of related data centers. Green hydrogen offers another conversion method. In January of this year, the Baowu Qingneng (Yangjiang) Green Hydrogen Industrial Park project, with a total investment of over 11 billion yuan, was launched, intending to adopt an offshore wind power direct-connect hydrogen production model, planning to build an annual production base of 80,000 tons of green hydrogen, while simultaneously laying out green ammonia, hydrogen energy equipment, new hydrogen storage materials, and research and development among other sectors.

From advancing the first batch of offshore wind power projects nine years ago, to forming an equipment manufacturing cluster, and then to developing green hydrogen and green computing, Yangjiang's industrial chain is steadily expanding. Yangjiang also promotes the construction of a carbon footprint management platform and the international mutual recognition of certification results, helping enterprises record and calculate carbon emissions in the production process, so that traceable green electricity usage information becomes the basis for export companies to respond to supply chain emission reduction requirements.

[Source: 21st Century Business Herald]

[Editor: Xiaoneng]