Video: China Unveils World’s Most Powerful Direct-Drive Floating Wind Turbine

China officially rolled out the world’s most powerful direct-drive floating offshore wind turbine in Fuqing, Fujian Province on July 10, 2025. The 17-megawatt (MW) turbine was jointly developed by China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. and Dongfang Electric Corporation.

This turbine holds two world records, it is the most powerful floating wind turbine and has the largest rotor diameter ever built for a floating offshore unit. The rotor spans 262 meters, and the total swept area reaches about 53,000 square meters.

With a single-unit capacity of 17 MW, this development is a major breakthrough in China’s offshore wind power equipment manufacturing. It also provides important technical support for expanding offshore wind power into deeper and more distant sea areas.

The turbine is designed to handle harsh sea conditions. It can operate stably even when tilted and is capable of withstanding waves taller than 24 meters and typhoons up to level 17. Its time-based availability rate is expected to exceed 99 percent.

China Huaneng has followed a joint innovation model that brings together the offshore wind industry, academic institutions, researchers, and application sectors. Through this approach, the company has worked closely with equipment manufacturers to overcome major technical bottlenecks in floating offshore wind technology.

As part of the project, the turbine includes China’s first locally produced large-diameter main shaft bearing. All key components, such as the blades, generators, converters, and transformers, are fully localised, meaning they are all manufactured within China.

The research and development team also achieved progress in high-fidelity modeling and simulation of floating systems, as well as in the precise manufacturing and assembly of large blades and low-speed permanent magnet direct-drive generators.

The turbine is expected to generate around 68 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean electricity annually. This output is enough to meet the yearly power needs of about 40,000 households.

In the next phase, the turbine will be towed to the sea off Yangjiang in Guangdong Province for testing and validation in offshore conditions.

Reference: sasac

Source: Maritime Shipping News