China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) said its 2 GW Yangjiang Fanshi offshore wind project in Guangdong province achieved full-capacity operation on September 24, making it the country's first new energy project to deploy 18 MW ultra-large offshore turbines at scale.

The project, located in the waters south of Nanpeng island off Yangdong district, Yangjiang, comprises two 1 GW sub-projects. It is CGN's flagship deep-water offshore wind development, with the farthest site 81 km from shore and a maximum water depth of 53 meters.

The project installed 131 turbines, including 33 units of 18 MW ultra-large offshore turbines, the largest single-unit capacity model deployed at scale in China to date.

Each 18 MW turbine has a rotor diameter of 292 meters and a swept area of about 66,000 square meters, equivalent to nine standard football fields. At full load, one rotation generates about 43 kWh, enough to power an average household for nine consecutive days. A single unit can generate 56 GWh annually.

The large-capacity turbines reduce the number of turbine positions needed, cutting costs for submarine cable laying, offshore foundation construction and sea area occupation, and helping lower the levelized cost of offshore wind power.

The project also built China's first 500 kV intermediate reactive power compensation station for an offshore wind farm, enabling stable long-distance grid connection for large-capacity offshore wind and addressing industry challenges related to remote offshore sites, long transmission distances and voltage losses.

At full capacity, the project will deliver more than 6.6 TWh of clean electricity to the grid annually, equivalent to saving about 1.92 million tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 5.1 million tonnes, or adding about 14,000 hectares of forest.

The project lifts Yangjiang's total offshore wind installed capacity above 8 GW, making it the city with the largest offshore wind capacity in China.