The Chinese government has approved a plan put forward by the People’s Municipal Government of Shanghai to build more than 29GW of offshore wind capacity.
The plan, reported in the Xinmin Evening News, and then by the Bloomberg agency, was announced at a committee meeting held to promote the city’s plans to achieve carbon neutrality.
Once the project is complete, the financial and industrial hub will receive about 100 billion kWh of green energy a year, equal to more than half its demand. It is also set to receive green power from onshore wind farms in Inner Mongolia.
These projects are part of a wider Chinese drive to develop its wind potential, aided by price wars between domestic manufacturers that have cut the cost of installing turbines.
China is presently the global leader in wind generation, with some 440GW of installed capacity in 2023, a threefold increase on 2015.
However, the abundance of open steppe in the north of the country has meant that offshore wind has lagged behind cheaper onshore development.
By 2030, the country aims to achieve a capacity of 561GW for onshore wind and 55GW for offshore. Solar generation has a target of 1,100GW.
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