China's first deep-sea floating wind power platform sets sail

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- China's first deep-sea floating wind power platform set sail from Zhuhai in south China's Guangdong Province towards the waters of the southernmost Hainan Province on Sunday, according to the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The platform, named CNOOC Guanlan, is China's first offshore wind power project with a water depth of over 100 meters and an offshore distance of over 100 kilometers, said Yang Yun, the executive vice president of the CNOOC.

"The platform lays a solid foundation for the development of China's wind power from shallow sea to deep sea," Yang added.

Invested in and built by the CNOOC, the platform will be installed in an offshore oil field located 136 kilometers from Wenchang in Hainan Province.

After the project is put into operation, the electricity generated by the turbine will be connected to the power grid of the offshore oilfield group for oil and gas production, with an annual power generation capacity of 22 million kilowatt hours -- saving nearly 10 million cubic meters of natural gas and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 22,000 tonnes per year.