China breaks records with offshore, onshore wind turbines

Dongfang manufactured by far the strongest offshore wind turbine, of 26 MW. CRRC, another Chinese engineering company, rolled off a 20 MW floating offshore machine, which was also never seen before. With its new 15 MW onshore unit, Sany Group achieved the country’s third world record in wind turbines, all within a week.

A surprise move took the bottom-fixed wind turbine game to a whole new level. Dongfang Electric Corp. or DEC said it completed a machine with a whopping 26 MW in capacity. The company rolled it off its production line in Fuqing in Fujian province in China’s east.

Just four months ago, the turbine maker claimed it broke the world record with an 18 MW offshore machine. It was installed for testing in Guangdong.

Then, in August, its competitor Mingyang (also known as Ming Yang) surpassed it with a unit of 20 MW in Hainan. It said it is developing a 22 MW offshore wind turbine, but Dongfang tops it by far with the new model. No other company has even made plans for 26 MW.

China is dominating the global market in installations as well, by far.

Dongfang’s behemoth offshore turbine of 26 MW is resistant to super typhoons

According to the update, the new turbine is designed for wind speeds of at least eight meters per second and is resistant even to so-called super typhoons. At an average ten meters per second, the projected annual output is 100 GWh. It is equivalent to the electricity needs of 55,000 homes in China.

The unit consists of more than 30,000 parts, Dongfang revealed. It highlighted a 67% higher torque than the 18 MW unit as well as a 36.8% reduction in vibration and 5.9% lower temperature rise.

Hub height is 185 meters. With a rotor diameter of 310 meters, the swept area would be just over 7.5 hectares or 10.5 soccer fields.

Mingyang to manufacture its 18 MW machines in Italy, deploy them in floating offshore wind park

Mingyang is preparing to deploy floating versions of 18 MW machines as well. Last week it reached a deal in Italy with Renexia, for a study for the Med Wind Project. The facility offshore Sicily would comprise of 190 MySE 18-292 machines. Earlier the Chinese manufacturer signed a memorandum of understanding with the Italian government on plans for a factory that would make the turbines.

Of note, Siemens Gamesa is working on a 21 MW offshore model. In addition, it said it would supply turbines of 15 MW for the Bandibuli (Firefly) floating offshore wind power plant in South Korea.

Train manufacturer CRRC Corp. makes record-large floating turbine

But a train maker, CRRC Corp., also left them all in the dust with a 20 MW floating wind turbine. It has just manufactured its first, in Yangcheng in Jiangsu in east China.

The diameter is 260 meters, translating to a swept area the size of seven soccer pitches. The unit can generate as much as 62 GWh per year. According to media reports, it will be drawn to a deep sea location after testing.

There is also a third new world record in China, with a new onshore wind turbine. Last week Sany Group said it installed a 15 MW unit in Tongyu in Jilin province, which borders Russia and North Korea.

The SI-270150 model has a rotor diameter of 270 meters and blades of 131 meters.