China advances in marine energy technologies

China has advanced in marine energy technologies, particularly in tidal energy, according to experts.

China has built an intelligent tidal power plant and the world's first tidal current power plant consisting of homegrown megawatt-scale generators, both in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

The Jiangxia Tidal Power Station in Wenling City is currently installing the last batch of new-generation control hardware on its six generators, five sluices and other public devices to build a self-decision-making system.

Upon the completion of hardware installation, the power station will start building software platforms and debugging.

"We have upgraded the equipment with new-generation hardware, which can collect various data on our tidal generator units and more importantly, is embedded with underlying execution programs of the self-decision-making system, enabling it to accept instructions from the system and then execute them automatically," said Xiang Zhili, a maintenance technician of the power plant.

With the help of the self-decision-making system, the start-up, shutdown and operating parameters of the tidal power plant will all be controlled by computers to minimize human errors, marking China's new achievement in developing smart tidal power technologies.

In the waters of Zhoushan, the LHD (initials of the three developers) Tidal Current Power Station has been incorporated into the power grid for eight years. Its self-developed generator unit "Endeavor" is the first of its kind to achieve stable megawatt-scale power generation.

Integrating a platform and modules, the tidal turbine can overcome various challenges in offshore installation, operation and maintenance, garbage prevention, and power transmission, effectively improving tidal current utilization and stability.

"Its advantage lies in that it is easy to manage. Unlike its foreign counterparts, it doesn't need humans to dive underwater to operate. The platform-base and modular approach make it convenient to manage and duplicate," said Lin Dong, director of the project's research center.

At present, Zhejiang is working on the construction of 100-megawatt-scale generators, hoping to scale up the utilization of sea tidal current energy and promote the development of relevant industries and businesses.

China advances in marine energy technologies

The three astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou-23 spaceship have entered the country's Tiangong space station and met with their astronaut colleagues early Monday morning, as they now begin an in-orbit crew handover.

Mission commander Zhu Yangzhu and fellow astronauts Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying successfully entered the station's core module Tianhe after the spaceship made a fast automated rendezvous and docked with the Tianhe module at 02:45 (Beijing Time) on Monday.

The three Shenzhou-21 crew members opened the hatch at 05:13 (Beijing Time) and greeted the new arrivals, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The six astronauts then took group pictures for the eighth in-orbit get-together in China's aerospace history.

Notably, one of the Shenzhou-23 crew members is set to undertake a year-long stay aboard the space station, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

The Shenzhou-23 spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 23:08 (Beijing Time) on Sunday.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.

Shenzhou-23 astronauts enter Tiangong space station, meet Shenzhou-21 crew