Offshore breezes prove windfall for fisheries

As the offshore wind sector booms in China, opportunities are also arising beneath the whirring blades and churning turbines.

Eyeing massive marine resources, turbine manufacturers across the country are stepping up efforts to integrate new energy projects with aquaculture farms, where fish, lobsters and crabs coexist with wind turbines, blades and cable routes, further promoting marine biodiversity.

Longyuan Power, a subsidiary of China Energy Investment Corp — the world's largest power producer and the top wind power developer in terms of installed capacity — recently put into operation the world's first wind-fishery integrated floating platform near Nanri Island off Fujian province, which will co-deploy floating turbines and deep-sea fish farming equipment.

The project, pioneering a new marine economic development model that combines underwater fish farming and above-water power generation in the field of floating offshore wind power, will take better advantage of surrounding marine resources, it said.

Consisting of a 4-megawatt floating wind turbine and 10,000 cubic meters of aquaculture water volume, the project is capable of generating 96,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each day, which can meet the daily electricity needs of about 42,000 households while boosting income from batches of fishery products, thus representing win-win cooperation between the development of new energy and the traditional marine economy, said Chen Yong, deputy director of Longyuan's Fujian subsidiary.

With remote monitoring and unattended operation, the intelligent deep-sea aquaculture equipment allows remote and intuitive observation of the state of the sealife populations, he said.

Longyuan said the electricity generated by the offshore wind turbine also ensures the safe and stable operation of the aquaculture equipment, solving the common problems of "insufficient power supply and unstable power supply" in traditional marine ranching.

Industry experts are optimistic about the integration of offshore wind and marine ranching, seeing the project — China's latest bid to combine offshore wind and fish farming — as a synergistic approach to sustainable development.

Combining wind power with aquaculture or ranching could benefit companies on both sides, leading to more resilient and diversified food systems, said Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute.

"While aquaculture firms can take advantage of turbine bases as a stable and sustainable environment to anchor fish cages or rope-and-raft systems for growing shellfish and kelp, any power needed to run the aquaculture farm or marine ranch could also be drawn directly from the turbines," Luo said.

"For the wind power firms, making fuller use of the site would reduce maintenance costs while they can make extra profits by selling the power generated to aquaculture firms."

By combining renewable energy with aquaculture, China is demonstrating a holistic approach to addressing environmental challenges, while the combination could also help China make better use of its ocean resources, he added.

Ocean resources now account for 7 percent of global GDP, and it is crucial for all nations to collaborate and promote sustainable development, said Beate Trankmann, the United Nations Development Programme's resident representative in China, adding that the blue economy is also important globally.

The mixed wind power and aquaculture model is not new overseas. European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway started trials as early as 2000, fixing fish cages and shellfish and kelp rafts to turbine bases. Asian countries, such as South Korea, got started in 2016, finding that valuable seafood such as kelp, mussels and scallops increased around offshore wind farms.

Before Longyuan's move, China Three Gorges Corp announced in 2019 plans for the country's first offshore wind project integrated with fish farming at Laizhou Bay in seafood-centric province Shandong, while China General Nuclear Power Group, the country's largest nuclear power plant operator by installed capacity and China Datang Corp, one of the largest power generation enterprises, are also pushing similar agendas.

Mingyang Smart Energy is among the private enterprise pioneers striving to take better advantage of vast ocean resources. The wind turbine manufacturer is working on a typhoon-resistant wind turbine jacket foundation that will incorporate an offshore fish farm, which will have an intelligent aquaculture system with remote functionality such as automated feeding, monitoring, detection and harvesting.

With a goal to produce 150,000 aquatic animals in a 5,000-cubic-meter cage, the innovative marine ranching project that harnesses cold energy from offshore wind farms will revolutionize sustainable aquaculture by utilizing renewable energy to create optimal breeding conditions for marine life, promote efficient use of the sea, along with offshore wind and hydrogen production, it said.

The high-quality aquatic products raised in this system are comparable to wild seafood and are less impacted by nearshore marine pollution, while the innovative project will also address concerns about potential area conflicts between future offshore aquaculture and wind farms, it said.

Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group also came up with the world's first floating wind turbine, solar farm and fish farm combination last year in Fujian province, which features a three-columned, semi-submersible floating platform that supports 3.6 megawatts of offshore wind turbine power and 0.4 MW of lightweight, flexible solar panels. A fish farming space has been dedicated in the hexagonal space beneath the central platform.

Once operational, the mixed energy project has the capacity to generate 96,000 kWh of electricity daily at full capacity, equivalent to the daily energy consumption of 42,500 individuals.

Li Ziyue, an analyst with BloombergNEF, said China's offshore sector has great upside potential in the years to come.

While China's offshore oil and gas production is expected to continue rising in the years to come, its continuous upstream investment and production commitment will also play a critical role in China's energy supply security, she said.

Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said China's strategic focus on maximizing the use of its marine resources represents a significant move toward sustainable economic growth and environmental stewardship.

By investing in offshore wind farms and other marine-based renewable energy projects, China can tap into vast energy potential while simultaneously fostering marine biodiversity, Lin said.

The creation of artificial reefs and habitats around these installations not only supports marine life, but also promotes fishery and tourism, thereby boosting local economies.

The holistic utilization of marine resources underscores the country's commitment to innovative sustainable practices that can drive long-term prosperity, he added.