China-France offshore wind farm starts operation in Jiangsu

NANJING -- The last phase of China's first offshore wind power project with foreign investment has started supplying electricity in the sea off Dongtai city, East China's Jiangsu province.

The last phase of the project, around 37 km off the coast, has an installed capacity of 200 megawatts and 50 wind turbines, according to Guohua Energy Investment Co., Ltd., under China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy).

The project, with a total investment of 8 billion yuan (about $1.3 billion), is jointly developed by China Energy and French energy giant EDF Group.

EDF Group invested more than $160 million in the Dongtai project, the company's largest investment in China's non-nuclear power market.

The project consists of two phases, and the first one registering an installed capacity of 300 megawatts was put into operation in December 2019.

The project is expected to generate 1.39 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year while avoiding the burning of some 441,900 tonnes of standard coal, thus cutting the emission of 937,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 1,700 tonnes of sulfur dioxide.

Jiangsu on China's eastern coast has been vigorously developing clean energy including wind and photovoltaic power.