China's independently developed 20-megawatt floating offshore wind turbine, the world's most powerful one so far, has rolled off the production line in Sheyang County of east China's Jiangsu Province, its developer CRRC Corporation Limited (CRRC) announced on Thursday.
With a propeller diameter of 260 meters, the wind turbine covers a sweeping area of 531,000 square meters, equivalent to seven standard soccer fields.
Capable of generating of 62 million Kwh of electricity in clean energy per year, a single unit of the wind turbine can satisfy the annual power consumption demand of around 37,000 households. This is equivalent to saving 25,000 tons of coals and cutting 62,000 tons of carbon dioxide emission each year.
Real-time monitoring of the wind turbine can be realized as it is equipped with multiple smart control and sensing technologies to ensure stable operation.
Located on a semi-submerged floating offshore wind platform, the floating offshore wind turbine could further utilize the wind power on the sea by allowing the deployment of wind turbines in larger and deeper offshore areas with higher wind potential.
"Traditional offshore wind turbines are based on structures fixed into the ocean floor, while floating wind turbines are given more leeway as they may drift with waves. Currently, floating wind power generation represents an important technological direction of the future of wind power development," said Wang Dian, deputy general manager of a CRRC's new energy technology subsidiary.
The floating wind turbine will be tested in Dongying City of east China's Bohai Sea coastal province of Shandong and will be installed later in a deep-sea area to be connected to the power grid , according to sources familiar with the project.
World's most powerful floating offshore wind turbine rolls off production line
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said early Tuesday morning that the Israeli Air Force was striking Hezbollah's command center and weapons storage facilities in Beirut, and attacked Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV in Beirut's southern suburb the same morning.
The Israeli military launched airstrikes Monday on Beirut's southern suburbs and villages in southern Lebanon, displacing thousands of civilians, local broadcaster Al Jadeed TV reported.
The attacks followed evacuation warnings issued by Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee.
Israeli strikes across Lebanon killed at least 52 people and wounded 154 on Monday, the Lebanese government said. The bombardment of southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs displaced more than 28,500 people, the government's disaster management unit reported.
Israel's military said Monday it struck more than 70 sites in Lebanon over the past day, targeting Hezbollah weapons storage facilities, launch sites, and missile launchers.
Tensions escalated after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, prompting retaliatory strikes.
"Hezbollah launched a volley of missiles and a swarm of drones toward Israel shortly before 1 a.m. (on Monday), in response to the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday. After Hezbollah claimed responsibility for firing rockets on Haifa and other places in Israel, the Israeli army launched a series of intense strikes on Lebanon at around 2:40 a.m., targeting southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut, causing thousands of people to flee these areas, with the Israeli army announcing an intensification of strikes and several days of fighting," said a China Media Group (CMG) reporter in Beirut.
The Lebanese government declared on Monday that all military and security activities outside state authority are illegal, demanding that Hezbollah disarm and surrender its weapons to state institutions.
"The Lebanese state declares its absolute refusal of any military or security actions taking place on Lebanese soil outside the framework of its legitimate institutions and affirms that the decision of war and peace rests in the hands of the Lebanese state alone," the Council of Ministers said in a statement issued after a Cabinet meeting, according to local television channel al-Jadeed.
The Cabinet said that Hezbollah's armed activities violate state authority and ordered security agencies to prevent the launch of rockets or drones from Lebanese territory and apprehend violators.
The Cabinet reaffirmed Lebanon's dissociation from regional conflicts and called for intensified diplomacy to secure a ceasefire and a clear Israeli commitment to halt attacks on Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad, who heads the group's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, criticized the government decision, noting that the move targets groups confronting Israeli attacks while failing to halt what he described as ongoing aggression.
Israeli strikes hit Beirut targets, Lebanese gov't bans Hezbollah military activities
