On May 2, the world’s largest single-unit capacity 16-megawatt floating offshore wind power platform, “Three Gorges Pilot,” was installed in the Yangjiang sea area of Guangdong, marking a new breakthrough in China’s deep-sea floating wind power technology.
The “Three Gorges Pilot” consists of three parts: a 16-megawatt ultra-large capacity wind turbine, a semi-submersible floating platform, and a new mooring system. The wind turbine has a rotor diameter of 252 meters, a swept area equivalent to seven standard football fields, and a maximum blade tip height exceeding 270 meters. Unlike traditional fixed wind turbines, this platform is installed on a semi-submersible floating platform measuring 80.82 meters in length, 91 meters in width, and with a displacement of 24,100 tons. The platform relies on nine suction anchors, paired with domestically produced high-performance polyester fiber cables and anchor chains, to achieve seabed mooring positioning.
The “Three Gorges Pilot” was previously assembled as an integrated unit at Tieshan Port in Beihai, Guangxi. After a long-distance tow, it crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and arrived at the target sea area more than 70 kilometers offshore from Yangjiang, Guangdong. Once the “Three Gorges Pilot” is commissioned and begins generating electricity, it is expected to produce approximately 44.65 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, enough to meet the全年 electricity needs of 24,000 three-person households.
