mithie007 t1_itk8hux wrote
I recall back in 2010 when China setup one of its first offshore windfarms, as a demonstration project, near Shanghai - no one really supported it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donghai_Bridge_Wind_Farm
The whole thing was seen as a giant waste of tax payer money. It went over budget and over time, and was operating well below the projected power output of 200 MW. (Ended up pulling in 120 MW).
I remember a bunch of local lobbyists were saying the money should have been better spent on rail infrastructure or solar farms.
But 10 years later and the 120MW wind farm is now the smallest of China's windfarms compared to stuff like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gansu_Wind_Farm
Which is currently operating at a fairly massive 8 GW with plans to expand to 20 GW.
China doesn't fuck around.
WikiSummarizerBot t1_itk8j63 wrote
>The Donghai Bridge Wind Farm is a 102 MW offshore wind farm close to the Donghai Bridge, Shanghai and is capable of powering 200,000 households. It started producing and transmitting power to the mainland grid on July 6, 2010. It is the first commercial offshore wind farm in China.
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kingofjesmond t1_itkggzt wrote
8GW is absolutely vast, considering the biggest non-Chinese offshore windfarm when built will be approx. 2.85GW. Current largest is ~1.35GW (again excluding China).
Edit: got my numbers a bit wrong.
0sprinkl t1_itkipn7 wrote
"With local-government favoritism toward coal and inadequate long-distance transmission capacity, Gansu "now has some of the highest rates of underutilization in the wind sector in China". National Energy Administration statistics showed 39 percent of wind capacity in 2015 in Jiuquan was wasted.[2]"
Great effort but it's still China.
mithie007 t1_itkj3ct wrote
Just... scroll down. Literally the next line.
"In 2017 the 2,383 km long Jiuquan - Hunan HVDC transmission line entered service connecting the remote complex to the Hunan regional grid allowing full utilization of its generation capacity.[4]"
BTW long distance transmission of wind farms has always been a problem in the industry - since most places with high wind output are typically nowhere near civilization.
Normal grid connectivity is sufficient for sub gigawatt output but when your numbers get up there, dedicated HDVC transmission is absolutely a must. This is something people have learned the hard way, and it is THE number one bottleneck when it comes to upscaling wind farms - not turbine availability - not area limitation.
Most wind farms outside of China are clustered around sub gigawatts precisely because the amount of money and funds required to put in a proper HDVC transmission system can rack up a bill as large as the turbine installation themselves.
Unlike turbine construction and deployment, transmission lines are typically NOT subsidized, and rather rolled into existing infra expansion costs.
Asking an energy company to eat the cost of a substantial megaproject in and of itself with no subsidy and no clear profit projections in the name of renewables is... actually a very Chinese thing.
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