China plans world’s biggest wind farm, capable of powering 13 million homes

The 43.3 gigawatt facility will stretch 110 km off the coast of Chaozhou

China’s proposed offshore windfarm will have more than 150-times the capacity of the UK’s Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm, pictured here on 8 November, 2017 (Getty Images)

A Chinese city has announced plans to build the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 13 million homes.

Chaozhou in China’s Guangdong province revealed the 43.3-gigawatt (GW) project in its five-year plan, published online on Friday.

The facility will stretch more than 10km on the Taiwan Strait, where wind is reportedly strong enough to run turbines between 43-49 per cent of the time.

Estimates suggest the 43.3 GW of power generating capacity is equivalent to the entire energy demand of Norway.

Comparisons made by the US Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy suggest the Chinese wind farm would be able to power 4.3 billion LED lights. The five-year plan did not mention the cost of the project.

Renewable energy has been a key component of President Xi Jinping’s mission to transition away from carbon-emitting power sources and become a renewable energy superpower.

“We will work actively and prudently toward the goals of reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality,” he said during his opening address to the Congress on 16 October.

“Based on China’s energy and resource endowments, we will advance initiatives to reach peak carbon emissions in a well-planned and phased way, in line with the principle of getting the new before discarding the old.”

In 2021, China added 17GW of offshore wind generation capacity – more than every country in the world combined over the last five years.

Despite the advances, China remains the most polluting country on the planet and has a comparatively modest net zero target of 2060.