The world's first 16-megawatt tension-leg platform (TLP) floating wind platform, Haiyou Anlan, went into operation August 6, supplying green power directly to offshore oilfields in China's Pearl River Mouth Basin. Offshore Oil Engineering Co. (COOEC) built the platform, which now operates in deeper water, farther from shore, and with a larger single turbine than any other TLP floating wind platform in the world.
Haiyou Anlan sits in water 136 meters deep, 136 kilometers from the coastline. The platform stands over 307 meters tall and carries a 16 MW turbine built to withstand Category 17 typhoons, with a rotor spanning 260 meters. A TLP anchors a floating structure to the seabed with taut mooring lines, a design COOEC says cuts steel use by 40% and seabed occupation by 90% compared with semi-submersible floating wind platforms.
Once fully operational, the platform is expected to generate 54 million kWh of power for nearby oilfields each year. COOEC says that output equals roughly 15,000 cubic meters of fuel oil saved and 35,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided annually. The structure has a maximum displacement above 15,000 tonnes and includes a wind turbine, floating hull, mooring system and seabed anchor foundations.
COOEC built the hull at its Qingdao Fabrication Yard, then towed it to the company's Zhuhai Yard for final assembly. The design won Approval in Principle from four classification societies: CCS, BV, ABS and DNV. Crews completed more than 70,000 meters of weld seams with a first-time pass rate above 99%. Dimensional tolerances on critical components stayed within 2 millimeters, and overall weight measurement error came in at 0.3%. The vessels Lan Jing 7500 and HYSY 291 carried out the subsea mooring work.
