China’s First Offshore Wind Farm Using High-rise Pile Cap Foundation Put into Full Capacity Operation by GD Power

On April 12, No.63 turbine of Zhejiang Zhoushan Offshore Wind Power Company was officially connected to the national grid, marking the launch of GD Power Development Company’s first offshore wind farm and full operation of China’s first offshore wind farm using high-rise pile cap foundation.

This offshore area features heavy sludge, surging waves and frequent typhoons. Given the local severe weather and impact of wave loads and ship motions on the pile cap foundation, the project innovatively proposed an “improved high-rise pile cap foundation” solution, elevating the cap foundation to 12.5 meters high with a prerequisite of ensuring structure safety. The successful application of the improved high-rise pile cap foundation fills the domestic blank of generating wind power in heavy-sludge offshore areas and reduces the cost of single turbine by nearly 3 million yuan. This technology has won a first prize of 2018 China Power Innovation Award, a second prize of China Electrical Power Construction Science and Technology Progress Award and a second prize of China Electrical Power Engineering Science and Technology Progress Award.

This project has made many records in China’s offshore wind power industry: it first adopted anti-typhoon design at offshore booster stations, created innovative engineering methods such as integral hoisting of weight-bearing towage, and formulated and implemented “Dual Acceptance Standards for Offshore Wind Power Design and Management” and “Safety Standards for Offshore Wind Farm Construction,” providing references for emergency power supply, anti-typhoon capacity improvement and standardization of offshore wind farm construction under power-off conditions.

Zhejiang Zhoushan Offshore Wind Power Company boasts a total installed capacity of 252,000 kilowatts, and when put into full capacity operation, it can annually generate 770 million kilowatt-hours of power, save 240,000 tons of standard coal, and reduce carbon emissions by 610,000 tons.