China Huaneng Group has fully commissioned the 504 MW Shandong Peninsula North offshore wind farm, bringing China’s deepest commercial offshore wind project into operation on 7 April.
The project is located about 70 km off the coast of Shandong Province in water depths ranging from 52 m to 56 m. This makes it China’s deepest commercial offshore wind project to date.
The wind farm has 42 turbines rated at 12 MW each. They are installed on four-legged jacket foundations with a maximum height of 83.9 m, the tallest of this type in China, according to China Huaneng Group.
On 8 April, China Huaneng Group said the project used high-precision positioning technology based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System. The system achieved millimeter-level positioning for seabed pile driving. Combined with intelligent assisted sinking technology, it reduced pile-driving time for a single wind turbine foundation from 48 hours to 29 hours.
The developer also said it used a combined method involving drones and artificial magnetic fields for offshore cable installation. This helped lay 95.6 km of subsea cable for the 504 MW project.
Shandong Province saw its first offshore wind turbine installation in 2021, when work started on the 301.6 MW Huaneng Shandong Peninsula South 4 project off Haiyang City.
According to information released at that time, the province aims to develop 12.6 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
