On February 5, 2026, in the deep blue sea more than 30 kilometers away from the coast of Fujian, a steel giant quietly rotated. With the successful integration of the world's first offshore wind turbine with a single capacity of 20 megawatts into the grid, clean electricity has begun to be injected into the national power grid. This is not only the completion of a project, but also the departure of China's offshore wind power towards a new era of deep sea.

Creating multiple world firsts

This 20 MW wind turbine standing in the waters of southern Fujian has redefined the boundaries of offshore wind power with its astonishing scale and performance. The center height of its wheel hub reaches 174 meters, equivalent to the height of a 58 story building; The impeller diameter sweeps 300 meters and the sweeping area exceeds 10 standard football fields. At rated wind speed, this super wind turbine can generate over 80 million kilowatt hours of green electricity annually, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of about 44000 households. It can save about 22000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 59000 tons annually. The core of the unit adopts a new type of airfoil blade independently developed by China, combined with lightweight and digital intelligent design, which reduces the weight per megawatt by more than 20% compared to the industry average. It has achieved significant breakthroughs in wind capture efficiency and power generation performance, laying a solid foundation for stable and efficient operation in deep sea environments.

Overcoming the difficulties of economy and grid connection

Facing the three major challenges of high cost, difficulty in grid connection, and strong environmental adaptability that are commonly faced by the global development of offshore wind power, this 20 MW unit provides a Chinese solution. Compared with the previous generation of 16 MW units, its ultra large capacity can reduce about 25% of the number of parking points, significantly reducing sea area and infrastructure costs. At the same time, by applying high modulus carbon fiber blades and intelligent control technology, the overall power generation efficiency has been improved by about 5%, promoting a comprehensive reduction of 5% to 8% in the project's electricity cost per kilowatt hour, and clearing the economic barriers for the large-scale commercial development of deep-sea offshore wind power. More importantly, the unit innovation adopts DC coupled grid type wind storage integration technology, which enables it to operate stably even in extreme environments with extremely weak grid support (short circuit ratio as low as 1.0), and has the ability to operate in a "isolated grid" and "black start", independently constructing local power grids, greatly improving its support capacity and friendliness for future new power systems. Keywords: wind power news, wind power news and information

Consolidate global leadership position

The successful operation of the world's first 20 MW unit is not only a breakthrough in key equipment, but also a powerful driving force and upgrade for the entire industrial chain. From independent research and development, precision manufacturing to complex offshore hoisting construction and commissioning operations, the success of this project has comprehensively verified and enhanced China's ability in the entire industry chain of ultra large capacity offshore wind power. It further consolidates China's global leading position in the research and development, high-end manufacturing, and engineering applications of large capacity offshore wind turbines. As a milestone, China's wind power industry, relying on continuous breakthroughs in key equipment and upgrading of overall solutions, is accelerating towards a more vast and challenging "blue ocean", contributing important Chinese strength to the global energy green transformation.Editor/Gao Xue