Offshore Wind in China as Pioneering Sustainable Solutions (Norway-China business summit 2018)

As part of the official state visit to China by Their Majesties King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway there was a Norway-China business summit in Beijing 16 October.

This was organized by Innovation Norway and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT). The title of the event was Pioneering Sustainable Solutions.

It contained a plenary session with high profile welcoming speeches by His Majesty King Harald V and high ranking officials from China and Norway, followed by a panel debate on “Towards a sustainable, digital future?”, before lunch and breaking into 8 parallel sessions.

I had the pleasure of joining the parallel session on offshore wind in China, and from this event I give some reflections.

The offshore wind summit, Beijing 16 October 2018, included a total of 19 presentations by high ranking representatives from a range of Chinese and Norwegian entities, for example: Mr. Wu Qiren, Deputy General Manager, China Three Georges New Energy Co.; Ms. Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde, Deputy Minister, Petroleum and Energy; Mr. Kim Mørk, Executive Vice President, DNV GL; Ms. Hege Skryseth, Executive Vice President KONGSBERG and President of Kongsberg Digital; Mr. ZHANG Qiying, President and CTO of MingYang Smart Energy Group and Mr Endi Zhai, CTO, Goldwind.

The topic of offshore wind was popular. It attracted a full house and contained many very interesting presentations, both by Chinese and Norwegian partners, excellently organized by NORWEP and Innovation Norway in cooperation with China Renewable Energy Industries Association (CREIA) and China Wind Energy Association (CWEA).

In my view, it seemed to be a good match between the Chinese interest to develop offshore wind and the competence that could be offered by the Norwegian parties.

These include major Norwegian companies like Aker Solution, Equinor, DNV GL, Kongsberg Digital and Jotun that already have business in China, and see opportunity for growth within the offshore wind sector.

Offshore wind in China is a major market

Europe is still the major market for offshore wind, but followed closely by China. After UK and Germany, China is the country in the world with the largest installed offshore wind capacity, and expected to be growing rapidly in the next few years reaching 30 GW by 2027. Most of this will likely be bottom-fixed turbines at shallow water, but there are also developments in China with floating turbines.

The presentation I gave representing SINTEF was well received. It introduced our achievements within offshore wind research and innovation, and pinpointed that we focus our attention on areas where we believe we can make an impact.

• Find out more about SINTEFs expertise on offshore Wind.