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Video: China Floats Out Its Largest Floating Wind Turbine 

China's largest floating wind turbine
China towed its largest floating offshore wind turbine into position last week (Chinese state media)

Published May 30, 2022 8:05 PM by The Maritime Executive

At the end of last week, China deployed its largest floating wind turbine as part of a project designed to advance the technology and demonstrate the capabilities of floating wind power generation. According to the reports from CSSC and state media, the giant construction was uniquely designed for deep-sea and challenging conditions, including the ability to withstand a once in a 100-years typhoon.

Known as Fuyao, the floating platform was towed from Maoming in southern China into a position more than seven miles offshore in the South China Sea. The location was chosen for the demonstration because of a complex seabed and water depths that range between 170 feet and 225 feet. In that location, it will also be subjected to strong currents and the area is prone to typhoons.  

Because it is the first deep-sea wind turbine deployed in China, CSSC and its subsidiary Haizhung Wind, which is overseeing the project, adopted a column-stabilized platform configuration, with a triangular base, a heave plate, a lower floating body, and an upper square strut. The engineers explained that this form with a flat lower floating body contributes to the buoyancy while permitting additional mass, and damping with structural support between columns to reduce the amount of floating body engineering. 

The system also uses a three-point catenary mooring system. The mooring cable adopts the form of an anchor chain, which they reported provides both a long service life while reducing costs.

 

 

The Fuyao floating platform has a total length of 236 feet, a depth of 108 feet, and a width of 262 feet. It is equipped with a 6.2MW anti-typhoon type wind turbine developed by China Ocean Construction. The tower height is over 250 feet. The total weight of the floating body and the unit exceeds 4,000 tons.

The turbine employs three blades, each of which is just over 240 feet in length. It uses an upwind direction, variable pitch speed, and a three-stage gearbox. CSSC said the design was developed to provide high power generation and high reliability.

Now that the massive wind turbine is in place, the engineers plan to closely monitor its operations to learn from the design to further develop floating wind technology. The project is not the first in China for floating wind turbines. Last year, China deployed a 5.5 MW floating wind turbine as an earlier demonstration of floating technology.

 


The center hub of the turbine stands over 300 feet above the sea and each blade is over 240 feet long

 

Massive base to support the 6.2 MW wind turbine