The stronger the wind and waves, the cheaper the electricity

Mondo Health Updated on 2024-01-28

The proposal of floating offshore wind power has made deep-sea wind power a reality.

Nanao Bridge. Photo by Fang Ganming.

With the gradual development of offshore resources, the "treasure" of the deep sea has come into people's field of vision. The deep sea has better wind power resources, and the proposal of floating offshore wind power has made deep sea wind power a reality. The reporter of "China Energy News" learned from the Shantou International Wind Power Technology Innovation Conference held recently that the development and utilization of deep-sea wind power has attracted much attention.

Offshore wind power developmentShantou bravely stands at the head of the tide

Standing at the head of the offshore wind power tide, why Shantou?

The geographical location is unique, and Shantou occupies the first place. Wen Zhanbin, secretary of the Shantou Municipal Party Committee, introduced at the conference that the coastline of Shantou is 396 kilometers long, and the usable sea area is 1050,000 square kilometers. Shantou has abundant offshore wind energy resources and excellent infrastructure facilities, and has great potential to develop 60 million kilowatts of offshore wind power.

The policy is also favorable. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development lists eastern Guangdong as one of the country's five key offshore wind power bases, with Shantou as its core area. Wen Zhanbin said that major policies support the development of offshore wind power in Shantou.

Major projects have been implemented. It is understood that Shantou has a forward-looking layout of technology innovation center, focusing on the construction of the world's largest 40 MW wind turbine electrical and dynamic six-degree-of-freedom experimental platform. At present, the 5 million kilowatt project in Shantou deep-water area has been clearly invested, and 8 million to 10 million kilowatts of offshore wind power projects will be built during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

Going to the deep sea is an inevitable requirement for the development of the offshore wind power industry, and it is also the unanimous desire of the whole industry, and floating offshore wind power provides a feasible and replicable idea.

At present, China has completed the construction of a number of floating offshore wind power projects such as "Three Gorges Leading", "Fuyao" and "CNOOC Guanlan", and the Hainan Wanning million-kilowatt floating wind power demonstration project has started. Floating wind power is accelerating from engineering to commercialization, and it is estimated that the cumulative installed capacity is expected to exceed 500,000 kilowatts in 2026.

Floating offshore wind

It is an inevitable choice to go to the deep sea

Floating offshore wind power is more abundant and is an important path to global decarbonization. Zhao Dawen, deputy chief engineer of Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group Co., Ltd. and vice president of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, pointed out in his speech that the potential of China's offshore wind resources to generate electricity from wind resources within 300 kilometers offshore is equivalent to 14% of global electricity consumption in 20227 times, the water depth in China's coastline is 60 meters, the offshore distance is more than 40 meters, and the more suitable floating scenarios account for 78%, and in the long run, the deep sea floating type provides an important decarbonization path for the world.

Floating offshore wind power can better adjust the attitude of the wind turbine to cope with the complex sea conditions in the deep sea. Liu Xin, director of the offshore wind power department of Huaneng Clean Energy Technology Research Institute, told China Energy News that by introducing artificial intelligence models, floating offshore wind power can achieve better control strategies and control wind turbines and buoys. By changing the yaw and pitch strategy of the wind turbine and adding dynamic ballast and other control equipment on the floating body, the attitude of the wind turbine can be adjusted more scientifically, so as to offset the disturbance effect of waves and make the wind turbine power generation more stable.

Floating offshore wind power has also received strong policy support. In September this year, the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice of the National Energy Administration on Organizing and Carrying out Pilot Demonstration of Renewable Energy Development", which pointed out that the demonstration of deep-sea wind power technology will be carried out. It mainly supports the application of large-capacity wind turbines from near (sea) and far (sea), focusing on exploring new floating foundations, flexible DC transmission with voltage levels of 500 kV and above, and large-capacity wind turbines of 15 MW and above.

The floating offshore wind industry may be a great solution for far-reaching power generation, but how to get it to land is also a problem. In this regard, Li Can, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that green hydrogen and liquid sunlight methanol are good ways to solve the problem of storage and transportation of offshore wind power energy.

Li Can said that it is feasible to turn carbon dioxide into methanol, that is, "solar fuel", through green hydrogen produced by wind, light and electricity. Shantou has an excellent wind power location foundation and an excellent foundation for the development of renewable energy, which provides a solid foundation for the realization of "solar fuel".

Zhanglin Ancient Port. Photo by Chen Shi.

Powered by supercomputing, floating offshore wind power is smarter

Supercomputing (supercomputer) empowers floating offshore wind power, so that floating offshore wind power can be seen and heard clearly.

Supercomputing makes floating offshore wind power "long eyes" and "ears". Yan Hui, deputy chief engineer of the National Supercomputing Center in Guangzhou, told China Energy News that supercomputing can realize the review of the sea state environment by simulating various factors such as wave intensity and seawater salinity, so that floating offshore wind power can "grow eyes" and "install ears", and provide "one-stop" operation and maintenance throughout the life cycle. At the same time, supercomputing shortens the time for floating offshore wind power to adjust its angle through instantaneous high-performance computing, and adapts to changes in the marine environment more quickly.

If you want to make floating offshore wind smarter, you need to polish it in the lab. Shantou 40MW Wind Turbine Electrical and Dynamic Six-Degree-of-Freedom Experimental Platform is an indispensable "wind tunnel laboratory" in the wind power industry, which can realize the ground simulation of the real stress conditions of 40MW offshore wind turbines, and is the world's largest experimental platform of its kind. It is composed of more than ten subsystems, the height is equivalent to 8 floors, the area is equivalent to three basketball courts, and the total investment is about 1 billion yuanIt can simulate the complex forces generated by giant wind turbines with a diameter of up to 400 meters in various offshore environments in real time, and provide test conditions close to the real operating conditions, which will become a major scientific research infrastructure to support the R&D and innovation of China's next-generation offshore wind power technology.

Text |Reporter of this newspaper Li **.

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