Wind farm makes city in Jiangsu self-powering

AN offshore wind power project with an installed capacity of 400,000 kW started operations yesterday in the Yangtze River Delta region in east China, the country’s economic powerhouse.

The project in Yancheng City in Jiangsu Province has brought the city’s total installed capacity of new energy power generation to 10.04 million kW, making Yancheng the first city in the region to possess an installed new energy power generation capacity exceeding 10 million kW.

The Yangtze River Delta is one of the country’s most economically active regions and produces about a quarter of national GDP. Power consumption in the region has been long dependent on transmission from other areas because of its limited power resources.

The development of offshore wind power projects will greatly increase the proportion of new energy power consumption in the region and help China realize carbon emission targets, said Yan Huaidong, general manager of State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company.

At the end of 2020, the total installed capacity of new energy power generation in Jiangsu Province surged to 34.96 million kW, up 369.9 percent compared with the end of 2015. China has promised to strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Yan said a 500-kV coastal power transmission channel be operational by the end of this year. The channel is expected to transmit 17.3 billion kWh of green power annually to the southern part of Jiangsu, which will help generate output worth 20 billion yuan (US$3 billion) by upstream and downstream industries.