With regard to renewable energy, China has made significant progress. Its wind turbine is so big that the Tour First, France’s tallest tower, could fit between its whirling blades and still have room to spare.
China Unveils the World’s Largest Offshore Wind Turbine
The name of this powerful machine is Qihang, and it has shocked the world with its size and strength.
The Qihang wind turbine was created by CRRC Corporation, a state-owned company better known for building high-speed trains. This time, the company has surprised everyone by entering the renewable energy sector with something never seen before.
The blades of Qihang span 260 meters from tip to tip. In contrast, the majority of wind turbines in France have blade spans ranging from 110 to 150 meters. The diameter of General Electric’s well-known Haliade-X turbine is 220 meters. But Qihang is even bigger.
Its tower stands at 151 meters, making the entire structure almost as tall as a 50-story building. The blades, when standing vertically, would reach even higher than that. If you placed the 231-meter-tall Tour First between its blades, you would still have 29 meters of extra space. That shows just how gigantic this turbine is.
This offshore turbine doesn’t just look impressive—it also works impressively. It has a power capacity of 20 megawatts (MW). That’s around 37,000 households’ worth of electricity every year. In France, a household uses about 4,700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. This means that one single Qihang turbine could supply energy to an entire medium-sized town.
A Technological Breakthrough in Renewable Energy
Qihang is more than just big. It is smart, strong, and designed to face the toughest sea conditions. The turbine is packed with over 200 sensors. These sensors monitor everything—from the blades and body structure to the mooring lines that keep it anchored. These smart systems help the turbine stay safe and work smoothly, even during typhoons, which are common in the seas where China installs its wind turbines.
🌊 $69M cable threat: How China’s deep-sea tech could sabotage the global internet
The Qihang turbine is built with a modular design. This means it can be adjusted and used with different floating platforms and anchor types. It’s also specially designed to operate far away from the shore, in deep waters where wind is stronger and more regular. These offshore zones are ideal for energy generation and cause no visual disturbance to people living on the coast.
The turbine can generate up to 62 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity every year. That is a huge amount of clean energy coming from just one unit.
Qihang was built at CRRC’s Sheyang factory. It was then moved by large barges to a port in Shandong province called Guangli. There, it was assembled, tested, and certified before being sent out to sea for real-world operation. The development marks another major achievement for China in the race to become the global leader in renewable energy.
China Leads, While Europe Struggles to Keep Up
China has achieved more than just size and power with the Qihang turbine. It shows how quickly the country is moving in the field of green energy. Global energy groups estimate that in 2023, China’s installed offshore wind energy capacity amounted to more than 30.89 gigawatts (GW). That is more than 40% of the capacity of the entire planet. In comparison, France had only 2.4 GW of offshore wind power installed in the same year.
With a coastline of around 11,000 kilometers, France is the second-largest country in Europe after the United Kingdom. It has the natural resources needed for offshore wind power. But despite this, the country has been slow in building new wind farms. Local opposition and complicated rules have slowed progress.
While France plans to reach 6.2 GW by 2028, China is already far ahead. And it’s not stopping. Mingyang Wind Power, another Chinese company, is already developing a 22 MW wind turbine that would surpass Qihang’s power.
The Qihang wind turbine is a clear sign that China is not only serious about clean energy but also leading the world in building the biggest and best green technology.
