Since the beginning of this year, there has been continuous good news about offshore wind power. Judging from the 2024 major project plans released by coastal provinces such as Fujian, Hainan, and Shandong, offshore wind power is the key "hot word", and offshore wind power projects deployed by major energy developers are ready to go. The industry generally believes that a "small explosion" of offshore wind power is close at hand.

近日，2024年浙江“千项万亿”重大项目集中开工建设，在统筹谋划的333个重大项目中，岱山1号海上风电场工程等多个大型海上风电项目位列其中。 经过补贴政策调整的过渡期后，今年以来，海上风电利好消息不断。从福建、海南、山东等沿海各省发布的2024年重大项目规划看，海上风电是关键“热词”，各大能源开发商布局的海上风电项目更是蓄势待发。更深、更远、更多元，业界普遍认为，海上风电“小爆发”近在咫尺。

Add code layout in multiple coastal provinces

The "effective Investment Policy of Zhejiang Province for 2024" (hereinafter referred to as "the policy") issued by the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission in February this year clearly proposes to speed up clean energy and new power infrastructure construction, support the high-quality development of renewable energy and the goal of adding more than 8 million kilowatts of scenery, promote the "full opening" of wind power in provincial-administered sea areas by competitive configuration, and strengthen the demonstration of far-reaching offshore wind power. The "Policy" also stresses that in order to further implement the "trillions" of effective investment projects, expand effective investment, optimize investment structure, and improve investment efficiency, it is necessary to strengthen the protection of land and sea factors, and ensure that the project will use 25000 mu of sea in 2024. According to public documents, the Daishan No.1 offshore wind farm project plans to install 38 offshore wind turbines with a single unit capacity of 8.0MW, with a total installed capacity of 304MW and a static investment of more than 3.6 billion yuan. In addition to Zhejiang, by the end of February, Hainan, Fujian, Shandong and other coastal provinces have also announced investment plans for major projects in 2024 one after another. In the list of major projects in Shandong Province in 2024, the total installed capacity of five large-scale offshore wind power projects, including Huaneng Shandong Peninsula North BW site Offshore Wind Power Project, State Energy Group Guohua Peninsula South U2 site Offshore Wind Power Phase II project and Shandong Energy Bozhong Offshore Wind Power Project (site G), total installed capacity is 3.6GW. In the list of key projects published by Fujian Province, 47 key energy projects include 5 offshore wind power projects. As China's first million kilowatt floating offshore wind power project, the Wanning 1000 MW floating offshore wind power test project with a total investment of 23 billion yuan is also in the investment plan of Hainan Province in 2024. The promotion of this project will greatly boost the development of China's far-reaching offshore wind power.

Competition for project resources is fierce

各地积极加码布局的同时，各大能源企业海上风电项目也陆续获批核准。今年以来，更有多个大型海上风电项目开工建设。 1月底，申能CZ2、大唐CZ3海上风电项目集中开工，两大项目总装机容量均为120万千瓦，这是海南省“十四五”期间首批通过自然资源部审批的海上风电项目。2月初，国家能源集团广东公司江门川岛二海上风电项目获江门市发改局核准批复，从取得项目开发权到核准仅用时117天，成为国家能源集团在粤首个核准落地的海上风电项目。 “从各大企业海上风电项目推进情况看，今年新增海上风电装机容量至少将在去年基础上增长40%以上。”中国新能源电力投融资联盟秘书长彭澎告诉《中国能源报》记者，“目前各沿海省份海上风电项目指标大多分配给大型能源央国企，同时也有部分新能源设备企业入局并获取开发资源，整体看，海上风电项目资源竞争已比较激烈。” 据国家气候中心最新数据，中国海上风电资源潜力巨大，海上150米高度、离岸200公里以内且水深小于100米的风能技术可开发量达到27.8亿千瓦。在彭澎看来，随着深远海风电技术发展成熟，海上风电潜力还能不断挖掘。同时，海上风电更能够与渔业养殖等其他产业融合发展，市场空间将进一步拓宽。 以“海上风电+海洋牧场”模式为例，去年底，明阳阳江青洲四海上风电场项目首批风机全容量并网，该项目利用风渔一体化智能装备实现全球首个“绿电一体化直供养殖的低碳渔业”模式，探索了海上风电开发全新路径。 在业界看来，“海上风电+”模式多元多变，不论是海洋牧场还是制氢制氨，各沿海省份可根据当地消纳空间、送出条件等因素综合考量，因地制宜选择融合开发模式。

We should still be cautious and optimistic under the expectation of "small outbreaks"

Overall, the major research institutions are optimistic about the new installation of offshore wind power in China in 2024. China Post Securities pointed out in the research report that at present, the planned capacity of offshore wind power in various provinces and regions during the 14th five-year Plan is close to 60 gigawatts. With the accelerated examination and approval of stock projects and the acceleration of construction, it is expected that the scale of offshore wind power projects will exceed 15 gigawatts in 2024, and the scale of grid connection will exceed 10 gigawatts this year. The large-scale development of offshore wind power is inseparable from the gradual maturity of technology and the continuous decline of construction costs. In recent years, the large-scale capacity of offshore wind turbine has obviously increased, which has become the main driving force to reduce the cost of offshore wind power. New equipment from major wind power manufacturers has emerged one after another, and the single unit capacity of mainstream offshore turbines in the market has increased rapidly from 6 MW two or three years ago to more than 10 MW. According to data released by market research institutions, the average price of offshore turbines fell 9% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the same period last year, and fierce market competition among machine builders is driving fan prices to an all-time low. While the technological maturity is gratifying, a number of industry experts have warned that the non-technical costs of offshore wind power projects are on the rise. "in the past, when there were few offshore wind power projects, the non-technical cost was certainly not high, but with the increasing scale and increasing conflicts with other industries, the cost of using the sea has actually increased." An executive of a wind power company said in an interview with China Energy Daily. In order to meet the potential challenges of using the sea, people in the industry believe that, on the one hand, intensive use of the sea may become a general trend of future development, allowing sea area management to achieve the transformation from plane to three-dimensional, two-dimensional to three-dimensional; on the other hand, the relevant competent departments should also jointly clarify the examination and approval mechanism as soon as possible, from "Kowloon governing the sea" to "unified management, one-stop completion". Peng Peng also pointed out that at present, some equipment in the offshore wind power industry chain still needs to import foreign products, and if the replacement made in China can be realized, the equipment cost is expected to go down further.

original title: Deeper, farther and more diverse wind power entering the sea is accelerating

Wen| Reporter Li Limin