Recently, the strongest typhoon of the year, Super Typhoon Jagi, made landfall along the southern coast of China, with a maximum wind speed of 68 m/s at its center, belonging to the category of above 17-level winds. It is the strongest typhoon to make landfall in China since Typhoon Rammasun in 2014, and its accumulated momentum even instantly washed a 2-ton anti-wave stone from the shore to the seawall. So far, Jagi has affected multiple areas in Hainan, Guangdong, and Guangxi provinces.
This “autumn typhoon” with the strongest landing in the history of China has not only severely affected the production and life of the people, but also posed a serious challenge to the safe operation of offshore wind farms. The Yangjiang Shapa Phase II and III Offshore Wind Farm (hereinafter referred to as the “Shapa Project”), the Zhanjiang Xuwen Offshore Wind Farm (hereinafter referred to as the “Xuwen Project”), and a 13.6MW offshore unit batch application under construction project, all equipped with Goldwind’s turbine units, are in the path of Jagi’s impact. During the typhoon, under the efficient management of customer companies, and in close cooperation with the Goldwind team, the Goldwind units of the above wind power projects all calmly passed the extreme weather test, reflecting their high reliability.
Faced with Typhoon Jagi, the 62 units of the Shapa Project safely withstood the impact of the highest wind speed of 41 m/s, achieving full-field safe shutdown within the specified wind speed, and smoothly passed the typhoon challenge.
The Xuwen Project is equipped with 47 Goldwind GW171-6.45MW units. As the only offshore wind power project to win the “National Quality Engineering Gold Award” in 2022-2023, it has made breakthroughs in solving the technical bottlenecks of building large offshore wind power projects under conditions of multiple strong typhoons and thunderstorms during the construction period. It has accumulated valuable experience in dealing with the tests of super typhoons such as “Talim” and “Saola” in the past, which has also laid the foundation for defending against this typhoon. This time, the Xuwen Project is located within the core wind circle of Jagi, suffering a direct impact, and has experienced the highest wind speed of 44.72 m/s, with 13-14 level hurricanes affecting the project for nearly 6 hours. During the typhoon, the units, with high reliability, stood firmly in the storm and maintained efficient power generation, generating more than 2.1 million degrees of electricity in less than 9 hours.
In the 13.6MW offshore unit batch application under construction project, which is also affected by Typhoon Jagi, Goldwind relies on its independently developed first typhoon-resistant solution in the wind power industry during the construction period – “Goldwind Remote Communication Typhoon Resistance Control System”, which allows more than 30 hoisted units to face the highest wind speed of 44.3 m/s, using “Beidou communication technology + self-generator” to control the unit to sail against the wind, avoiding the risk of Jagi’s passage to the unit.
A total of more than 140 units in the above three projects have stood steadily during the passage of Jagi, smoothly passing the super typhoon attack, and successfully ensuring the safety of customer assets.
Looking back at history, the meteorological big data in the past ten years shows that the super typhoons that landed in the area from Hainan Island to Western Guangdong are Typhoon Rammasun in 2014 (70 m/s, above 17 levels) and Typhoon Rainbow in 2015 (52 m/s, level 16). At that time, facing the huge natural risk of typhoons, the accumulation of anti-typhoon technology and successful experience in China’s offshore wind power industry was not sufficient. Now, China’s offshore wind turbine units have not only achieved leapfrog development in single machine capacity, but also made outstanding achievements in dealing with natural environmental threats and coexisting with nature. Safely dealing with natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes is no longer a “no man’s land”. The successful practice of Goldwind in dealing with typhoon challenges many times will also accumulate valuable experience for the wind power industry to deal with extreme weather, supporting the stable development of offshore wind power in a more reliable and healthier direction.
During the passage of the typhoon, in the Guangdong Yangjiang sea area, which was more affected, all Goldwind units achieved zero faults and zero shutdowns during the typhoon. Based on the experience of previous typhoons and calculation verification, during the Jagi, the control strategy of the offshore unit was further optimized and tested in practice, taking another solid step in exploring the impact of typhoons and super typhoons on offshore wind farms and the operation characteristics of large offshore wind turbine units during typhoons and other important technical work.
In addition, Goldwind has also joined hands with partners to carry out in-depth research on anti-typhoon technology for offshore wind power projects during the construction period, further enhancing the anti-typhoon capabilities of the entire wind power project process. This technology has been applied in 7 offshore wind power projects and nearly 200 offshore wind turbines, and has won the highest technical honor award in the installation industry – the third prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of the China Installation Association, which has been highly recognized by the industry.
Driven by project experience and experimental verification, the anti-typhoon design of Goldwind’s units has also achieved many breakthrough results, giving the units an innate reliable gene. In terms of blades, Goldwind’s anti-typhoon type units carry out customized anti-typhoon design from three aspects of strength, shape, and force, using anti-typhoon airfoils, and the main shift uses carbon fiber materials, which is 10 times stronger than steel, increasing the strength of the blades while reducing the weight by 20%. At the same time, the blades use a swept design, with a slenderer blade shape to reduce the wind load it bears, and reasonably use the bending and twisting coupling effect of the super long flexible blades to achieve passive unloading during typhoons. In addition, the intelligent control system of the unit can ensure that the blades are always at the minimum force angle, avoiding vortex-induced vibration and ensuring the safety of the unit.
In addition, Goldwind’s anti-typhoon type units also use communication redundancy design, and are equipped with a smart status monitoring system in the offshore unit, which is based on perception technology and hundreds of sensors and cameras distributed in the major components of the unit, to monitor the status and operation of the wind turbine in real time, ensuring that the project unit is always in control.
With the support of the above technologies, the 16-megawatt wind turbine, which has been stably operating in the typhoon-prone waters of Fujian for more than a year, has stable vibration data and indicators when facing the Super Typhoon Doksuri with the maximum wind speed of 40.56 m/s. During the passage of Haikui, it once again refreshed the global record of single-day single-machine power generation of 387,200 degrees with the help of high wind speed, and in 2024, it faced the super typhoon Gaemi, and still stood firmly in the face of the highest wind speed of 48 m/s, always ensuring the coexistence of reliability and high safety.
In the face of the power of nature, Goldwind has always maintained a heart of awe. Wu Gang, Chairman of Goldwind, said, “Wind power is a risky industry, and there must be a sense of awe for the development of the industry. We believe that the wind power industry is a long run, and quality is the key to our future.” In several “big exams” of typhoons, the valuable experience and a large amount of data accumulated have laid a solid foundation for improving the reliability and stability of the unit and optimizing the unit design in the future. In the future, Goldwind will also work with industry partners as always to promote the multi-scene application of wind turbine units and resist natural disasters, and escort the high-quality development of the industry.