China completes installation of world's largest single-unit floating offshore wind turbine

The world's largest single-unit 16-megawatt floating offshore wind turbine "Three Gorges Pilot" was installed on Saturday in waters off Yangjiang, south China's Guangdong Province.

The 16-megawatt floating offshore wind turbine consists of three parts, namely a 16 mw ultra-large capacity wind turbine, a semi-submersible floating platform, and a new mooring system.

With a maximum tip height exceeding 270 meters, the wind turbine rotor has a diameter of 252 meters, with a swept area equivalent to seven standard football fields.

Unlike traditional fixed-bottom turbines that are physically connected to the seabed, it is installed on a semi-submersible floating platform measuring 80.82 meters long, 91 meters wide, and with a displacement of 24,100 tons.

The platform is secured through nine suction anchors, combined with domestically produced high-performance polyester fiber cables and anchor chains for seabed mooring and positioning.

"To deal with the harsh sea conditions, our team has developed and applied a new mooring system, a dynamic monitoring system, an active ballast system, and 66 kV dynamic submarine cables for the first time in China," said Pan Hongguan, an offshore wind power engineer from Guangdong Branch of China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG).

According to Pan, the new mooring system combines polyester cable and anchor chain, which is like adding a "spring" to the middle of the system, to deliver superior mechanical performance.

The "Three Gorges Pilot" wind turbine previously completed its integrated assembly at Tieshan Port in Beihai of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It arrived at its target sea area located more than 70 kilometers off the coast of Yangjiang after a long-distance towed voyage across the Qiongzhou Strait which connects South China's island province of Hainan with Guangdong Province on the mainland.

After being put into operation, the wind turbine is expected to generate approximately 44.65 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually, enough to meet the annual electricity demand of 24,000 households.

China completes installation of world's largest single-unit floating offshore wind turbine

China's six-member wushu taolu team began its Asian Games campaign on Sunday, the first full day of competition at the 20th Asian Games, with five athletes making their debut.

Wushu at the Games is divided into taolu, which features choreographed martial arts routines, and sanda, a full-contact fighting discipline. The taolu competition runs from Sunday through Wednesday, Sept. 20-23, at the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall in Nagoya, Japan.

The squad has completed two familiarization sessions at the venue and will contest in six of the eight taolu medal events, skipping the men's and women's Changquan, or long-fist, competitions.

The six athletes are aged from 25 to 35. Tong Xin is the only member with previous Asian Games experience.

"Apart from Tong Xin, who competed at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the remaining five athletes are making their Asian Games debuts. They are leading athletes from their provincial teams and seasoned competitors who have been tested at major events, including world championships and World Cups," said Li Qiang, head coach of China's wushu taolu team.

While the Asian Games will be new to most of the squad, their competition routines are not. The athletes have been refining them for more than three years, and in some cases for a decade.

"A wushu saying goes: 'Practice a form a thousand times, and the technique will come naturally.' After honing a movement day after day, year after year, our understanding of it and our feel for it change. Another saying is 'strive for perfection.' That is why we spend 10 years working on a single movement," said Li Jianming, a member of the team.

China's wushu team opens Asian Games campaign with five debutants

China's wushu team opens Asian Games campaign with five debutants