China launches first offshore wind farm

China has launched Asia’s first offshore wind farm at a cost of CNY2365m (US$346m). The facility has a total capacity of 102MW, installed as 34 wind turbines in Shanghai, one to four miles east of Shanghai Donghai Bridge. While three turbines have been connected to the grid and generate 7.35GWh, the remaining turbines are expected to come online by the middle of this year, according to Lu Zhongmin, chief engineer of the Research Institute at Shanghai Design and Experimentation.

The country is encouraging domestic wind energy companies to developing the country’s offshore resources, which have an estimated potential of 100-200GW. However, the regulations concerning the approval and ownership of offshore wind farms has meant that international operators are left out of the running. Liming Qiao, policy director at the Global Wind Energy Council, said the offshore regulation, announced last week, will prevent overseas firms from being involved: “The regulation rules out foreign developers in the offshore business. This is a bit shocking, as we all know that for the onshore development the government didn’t explicitly exclude international developers.” The new offshore regulation does not overtly prohibit foreign involvement in project development. But it does require foreign companies to enter into a Chinese-controlled joint venture and it limits equity ownership to less than 50 per cent. “In reality, most of the international developers cannot, or are not willing to, do a joint venture with a Chinese partner,” Mr Qiao said. (Reve)