China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has installed a new offshore wind turbine at the Lufeng oil field in the northern portion of the South China Sea some 136 kilometres off the coast of Guangdong province.
Haiyou Anlan, which was designed and built in-house by CNOOC, has been connected to the Lufeng field's power grid and is now supplying the grid with electricity.
The 16MW turbine was built with a tension-leg platform structure capable of withstanding typhoon conditions of up to Beaufort Force 17, which are characterised by wind speeds of over 108 knots.
Haiyou Anlan is installed in the Pearl River Estuary Basin at a depth of 136 metres. The platform, which has a height of 307 metres and a total displacement of 7,800 tonnes, is connected to the Lufeng field power grid via subsea cables.
After commissioning, the platform is expected to provide 54 million KWh of electricity each year.
The development of the 16MW is in line with CNOOC's aim of establishing a multi-component power supply model combining offshore wind, oil-fired power, and energy storage. This would enable a high proportion of offshore wind power to be connected to an oil field grid, thus replacing crude oil power with renewable electricity, reducing dependence on fossil fuels for oil and gas production, and lowering pollutant emissions and carbon intensity.
