The world’s most powerful direct-drive floating offshore wind turbine — with the largest rotor diameter — jointly developed by China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. (China Huaneng) and Dongfang Electric Corporation, successfully rolled off the production line in Fuqing, Fujian Province on July 10.
With a single-unit capacity of 17 megawatts, the milestone marks a major breakthrough in China’s offshore wind equipment manufacturing and provides strong technical support for the country’s offshore wind expansion into deeper and more remote sea areas.
The wind turbine features a rotor diameter of 262 meters and a swept area of approximately 53,000 square meters. It can maintain stable operation even under larger tilt conditions, ensuring a time-based availability rate of over 99 percent. The turbine is also designed to withstand extreme conditions, including waves exceeding 24 meters and typhoons of up to level 17 intensity.
China Huaneng has actively leveraged a collaborative innovation mechanism that integrates industry, academia, research, and application across the offshore wind power sector. Working closely with equipment manufacturers, the company continues to tackle core technological bottlenecks and promote the research, demonstration, and industrial application of major innovations, thereby accelerating the coordinated development and upgrading of China’s wind power industry chain.
Notably, the turbine incorporates China’s first domestically produced large-diameter main shaft bearing, with all key components — including blades, generators, converters, and transformers — achieving full localization.
The R&D team also achieved breakthroughs in coupled simulation and high-fidelity modeling for floating systems, as well as in the precision manufacturing and assembly of large blades and low-speed permanent magnet direct-drive generators.
With an annual clean energy output of 68 million kilowatt-hours, a single unit can supply the annual electricity demand of approximately 40,000 households.
The turbine will, in the next phase, be towed to waters offshore Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, for trials and validation.
(Executive editor: Cui Feng)
