China connected 16.9 GW of offshore wind capacity to the grid in 2021, the latest data from the country’s National Energy Administration has shown.

Back in 2020, China installed then record 3,060 MW of new offshore wind capacity, reaching 9,898 MW of installed capacity at the end of that year.

China thus had 26,798 MW of connected offshore wind capacity at the end of 2021, a 171 per cent increase compared to the end of 2020.

China is now firmly in the first place in terms of both installed and connected capacity and has more than doubled the gap between the now second-placed UK which had 10,206 MW of installed offshore wind capacity at the end 2020.

The country has also nearly doubled the installed offshore wind capacity globally, which stood at 35.3 GW at the end of 2020.

Judging by the numbers that we currently have available, there was 52.2 GW of installed and connected offshore wind capacity worldwide, with more than half of it located in Chinese waters.

This number is bound to be adjusted upwards as the capacity installed in 2021 in Europe and other markets is added to the mix.

December 2021 was particularly busy offshore China, especially for China Three Gorges which connected 3.1 GW of offshore wind capacity in a single day on 25 December.

Developers had raced to connect all this new capacity to the grid in order to meet China’s Feed-in-Tariff deadline which expired on 31 December.

Source: Offhorewind.biz