(CFP Photo)

China’s first offshore wind energy project with domestic and foreign investment was launched in Dongtai, under the administration of Yancheng City in Jiangsu Province, on October 20. This also showed the country’s official opening of the offshore wind energy market to foreign investors and marked a key progress in the Belt and Road Initiative.

China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy) and EDF Group signed an agreement in Paris in March last year to build the offshore wind power project that involves a total investment of 7.94 billion yuan. EDF is taking a 37.5% stake through its subsidiaries EDF Renewables and EDF China, while  Guohua Energy Investment Jiangsu, a subsidiary of CHN Energy, holds the remaining stakes.

EDF’s investment of more than $160 million in the project is also the group’s largest in China’s non-nuclear energy market

The project at the Beitiaozini and Zhugensha water areas has two phases. The first phase, with a capacity of 302,400 kilowatts, has been connected to the grid. The second phase, with a capacity of 200,000 kilowatts, is still under construction and will be commissioned next year.

According to the agreement, CHN Energy and EDF will jointly construct the second phase of the project and operate and maintain the two phases. It is estimated that the wind power project will generate 1.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, which will reduce 937,500 tons of carbon dioxide and 1,704 tons of sulfur dioxide.

Jiangsu has made a smooth progress in wind and photovoltaic power projects, which boasted installed capacity of 11.495 million and 16.46 million kilowatts respectively by the third quarter, up 17.2 and 13.9 percent year on year. They accounted for 8.44 percent and 12.08 percent of the total installed generating capacity in the coastal province.