China Greenlights Massive Offshore Wind Project for Shanghai

(Bloomberg) -- China’s central government has approved Shanghai’s plan to build 29 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, as the city works to cut emissions to meet Beijing’s ambitious climate targets.

Once the deep sea project is complete, the financial and industrial hub will receive about 100 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity every year, according to local newspaper Xinmin Evening News. That’s more than half of Shanghai’s annual power consumption. The city is also set to receive green power from Inner Mongolia via a state-backed, long-distance grid, the paper reported, without providing details for either project.

China is leading the global push for renewable energy, with its offshore wind capacity set to triple to 129 gigawatts by 2030, according to BloombergNEF. Fierce prices wars between domestic manufacturers have made equipment much cheaper than in the rest of the world, driving market demand for clean energy. The price of offshore wind power even dipped below that of coal-generated electricity last month in another project off Shanghai. 

China’s largest offshore wind equipment manufacturer Ming Yang Smart Energy Group Ltd. rose as much as 2.3% in Shanghai on Monday, while Goldwind Science & Technology Co., the top producer of turbines both on land and at sea, was up 1.6% in Shenzhen. 

President Xi Jinping has pledged to peak carbon emissions before 2030, and some data show the country might have already achieved that goal last year. China has also pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2060 and said in its latest high-level policy meeting it would improve support for the consumption of renewables.

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