China's offshore wind boom could turn its coast into a power exporter
A new study finds that if China scales up offshore wind as aggressively as some analysts think possible, its coastal provinces could shift from importing electricity to exporting it, while adding millions of jobs.
China already holds about half of the world's offshore wind capacity, with roughly 47 gigawatts installed and a government target of 100 gigawatts by 2030. A new study modeling more aggressive growth, up to 1,000 gigawatts by 2050, found the buildout could do more than cut carbon emissions: it could turn China's ten coastal provinces from net importers of 813 terawatt-hours of electricity into net exporters of 88 terawatt-hours, raising their energy self-sufficiency by 26 percentage points.
Under that aggressive scenario, offshore wind's share of coastal power generation would rise from 20% in 2030 to 45% by 2050, becoming the largest electricity source in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces, surpassing nuclear power. The study projects cumulative coastal power investment of $2.6 trillion between 2025 and 2050 and an increase in coastal employment from 41.7 million to 48.3 million job-years.
Researchers say the buildout would also ease pressure on China's grid: interprovincial transmission capacity needs would fall 13% compared with a baseline scenario, and reliance on battery and pumped hydro storage would drop as offshore wind supplies power closer to where it's used. "Offshore wind offers a large clean resource close to coastal demand," the researchers wrote, arguing its value extends well beyond emissions cuts to energy security and regional job creation.
Based on reporting by Peng Liqun and Lin Jiang for Dialogue Earth, via Eco-Business. Read the original: https://www.eco-business.com/news/offshore-wind-offers-china-much-more-than-carbon-cutting/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
