Intertidal wind farm boosts China's offshore wind power

China boosted its offshore wind power by launching its largest intertidal wind farm at the end of 2011.

On December 28, Longyuan Power, China' s largest wind power developer, connected 99.3 megawatts of wind turbines to the grid in a pilot intertidal wind farm in Rudong county in eastern province of Jiangsu, reports Xinhua News.

Taking into account the existing 32MW turbines, which went into operation in September 2010, Longyuan has 131.3MW turbines integrated to the grid in the pilot wind farm in Rudong. This has made the Rudong intertidal project China's largest offshore wind farm.

According to China' s Wind Power Development Roadmap 2050, recently issued by the energy research institute of National Development and Reform Commission, until 2021, China will focus on onshore wind development.

Overall, China plans to have 1,000 gigawatts of installed wind capacity by 2050, making up 17 percent of the country's electricity consumption. So far, wind power generation accounts for 1.5 percent of national power generation.