On June 22, at the sea west of Dongfang, Hainan Province—an island province in southern China—giant white wind turbines turned steadily above the blue waters as Unit 9 of Longyuan Power Qiyuan Offshore Wind Farm was connected to the grid. "Look at this stretch of sea. The water is dozens of meters deep, and the seabed is highly complex. This 14 MW turbine model is being deployed in Hainan on a large scale for the first time," said Zhou Quanzhi, Senior Engineer at Longyuan Power, as the sea breeze swept across the slowly turning blades.
Longyuan Power Qiyuan Offshore Wind Farm in Hainan
As the flagship company for renewable energy within CHN Energy, Longyuan Power has remained committed to its offshore wind development strategy, charting a new course for high-quality growth across the open sea.
Expanding scale and exploring a new blue frontier
In Dongfang, Hainan, the steady sound of piling marked the full-scale commencement of foundation construction for the Qiyuan Offshore Wind Farm. The project is CHN Energy's first offshore wind project in Hainan. "The South China Sea presents high temperatures, high humidity and heavy salt spray. The seabed geology at the site is highly complex, with numerous boulders, limited construction windows and significant engineering challenges," said the head of Longyuan Power's Hainan company.
What makes the project especially remarkable is the team's unwavering commitment to ecological protection. By pioneering the use of trenchless horizontal directional drilling technology combined with drone surveys, the project set China's second-longest record for land-to-sea directional drilling while achieving zero disturbance to the marine ecosystem.
To preserve sufficient habitat for dolphins and other rare marine species, the project proactively optimized its design by reducing the number of turbines by eight. It also invested tens of millions of yuan (approximately several million USD) in dedicated funding for marine ecological conservation and restoration.
On April 5, 2026, the first batch of turbines was connected to the grid, marking a new breakthrough in the large-scale operation of high-capacity wind turbines in the South China Sea. Once fully operational, the project will deliver more than 1.5 billion kWh of clean electricity annually, enough to power approximately 1.2 million households and provide strong support for Hainan's development as a clean energy island.
Driving integration through innovation
To promote the integrated development of offshore wind power and marine ranching, Longyuan Power has taken the lead in transforming from a single-focus offshore wind developer into a pioneer of the Offshore-Wind-Plus model.
"As early as 2019, we began planning the world's first floating platform integrating offshore wind power and fish farming," Zhou Quanzhi recalled. At that time, only a handful of floating offshore wind projects had been built worldwide, but Longyuan Power was determined to become a pioneer. "To ensure the safe and stable operation of the floating turbine, we completed more than ten major design upgrades, achieving multiple technological breakthroughs from scratch," Zhou said.
After several years of development, the world's first floating wind-fish integration platform, Guoneng Sharing, was successfully commissioned in June 2024 in the waters off Nanri Island, Putian, Fujian Province in eastern China. Its 4 MW wind turbine generates clean electricity while large yellow croaker are raised in deep-sea fish cages below. Having withstood severe storms, this all-around performer has continued to operate reliably, generating more than 14 million kWh of electricity while producing fish worth several million yuan (approximately several hundred thousand USD) during a single farming cycle. The platform truly realizes the concept of "generating electricity above the sea and farming fish below", doubling the efficiency of sea-area utilization and serving as a vivid example of combining green electricity with a blue granary.
Digital intelligence creates a new "Lights-Out Factory"
At around 7:00 p.m. on July 25, 2024, Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in Xiuyu District, Putian, Fujian Province. Less than one month after entering commercial operation, Guoneng Sharing found itself directly within the typhoon's Force 12 wind field. Using a digital monitoring system, Longyuan Power's technical team closely tracked the platform's operating conditions and confirmed that the structural integrity, mooring system, aquaculture facilities, photovoltaic system and wind turbine all remained within normal operating parameters, successfully withstanding the storm.
"These technologies have now become part of our daily operations," Zhou said. Today, Longyuan Power has widely applied AI and Internet of Things technologies across multiple wind farms, making breakthroughs in unmanned inspection, unmanned monitoring and unattended operation, and taking the lead in intelligent operation and maintenance for offshore wind power.
Guoneng Haice No. 1
Meanwhile, to address challenges in offshore power cable construction and maintenance, Longyuan Power independently developed Guoneng Haice No. 1, a comprehensive offshore wind survey platform. By pioneering an unmanned operating model combining unmanned surface vessels with underwater robots, the platform has reduced cable repair times from 22 days to just two or three days, shortened fault-location cycles by 90 percent, and improved detection accuracy to within ±0.1 meters. Its overall technology has reached an internationally leading level and fills a domestic technological gap in magnetic-field detection for submarine power cables.
From coastal waters to the deep blue sea, from expanding scale to integrated development, and from conventional operations to intelligent technologies, Longyuan Power has demonstrated CHN Energy's commitment to advancing national priorities through practical innovation, establishing a benchmark for the high-quality development of offshore renewable energy. Standing at a new starting point, Longyuan Power will continue harnessing offshore wind while integrating marine industries, further developing the blue economy and contributing even greater green momentum to China's goal of becoming a leading maritime nation and achieving its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.
