Sinovel to roll out 6MW offshore turbine at Shanghai

The development is something of a milestone for Sinovel after it won a public tender to supply 34 units 3MW offshore wind turbines in 2010 to the Shanghai East Sea Bridge Offshore Wind Farm, the first pilot offshore wind farm in the country.

At the end of 2011, Sinovel and Huaneng Renewables formed a team to defeat four rival teams in a public tender to win the Lingang offshore project.

The wind farm is the second pilot offshore wind power project in Shanghai. Located in Nanhui district of Shanghai, the project involves an investment of CNY 1.76 billion ($279 million), and will be completed in September of 2014.

Sinovel will produce the 17 units of 6MW turbines at in its new production facility in Lingang. On October 8, 2011, Sinovel installed a 6MW prototype, so far the largest in Asia, in Sheyang county, east China’s Jiangsu province.

Globally, 6MW offshore wind turbines remain in the early stage of commercialised application. Sinovel vice president Tao Gang claimed the move would be "the first large-scale commercial application of 6MW offshore wind turbines in the world".

However Sinovel may lose out to Siemens, which has a contract to supply its 6MW turbine to the Deepwater Wind's Block Island project, at Rhode Island between 2013 and 2014.

Vestas declared to supply 15 units of 7MW turbines to German wind farm developer PNE at the Gode III project the Germany's sector of the North Sea. Repower expects to install a 6MW turbine in the Nordsee Ost wind farm in Germany in 2013.

According to the National Energy Bureau, China will construct 5GW of offshore wind projects by 2015, representing 5% of its total wind installed capacity. The country aims to have 30GW of offshore wind by 2020. 

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