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Demonstration project showcases how low-frequency power can unlock mass development of long-distance offshore wind power resources

BEIJING (July 8, 2022) – Today Goldwind announced the successful connection of the Taizhou 35kV Flexible Low-frequency Transmission Demonstration Project (“The Taizhou Project”) on the Dachen Islands in Zhejiang Province, China. The project hails as the world’s first low-frequency Permanent Magnet Direct Drive (PMDD) wind turbine that continuously transmits alternate current (AC) power via low-frequencies over long distances ranging from 80 to 200-kilometers.

In a statement, Chief Officer in State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Co., Ltd says, “The Taizhou Project serves as an important test case for future R&D of 10-megawatt and above wind turbines to transmit via low-frequency – further unlocking the potential for far more power to cross greater distances and with more economic efficiency.”

The Taizhou Project is the first demonstration project of flexible low-frequency transmission in China. The project couples an island-based low-frequency connection with two sizable wind turbines that then integrates via a series of grid transmission capabilities in order to build a network of sea-island-land connections.

“Goldwind’s latest 20Hz low-frequency AC power from its wind turbine aims to solve a number of limiting factors for offshore to land wind projects -- charging reactive power, power loss via underwater cable systems, and the high cost for investment and O&M -- that occur in either power frequency-based AC power transmission or DC power transmission. The Goldwind PMDD machines coupled with low-frequency smart technology makes them an ideal solution for large-scale offshore wind power with long-distance transmission,” says Aisikaer, Chief Technology Office and lead engineer on the project.

Goldwind served as the leading scientific research organization on low-frequency turbine power transmission for the demonstration project. The Company’s breakthroughs in low-frequency turbine applications and extensive technology development, as well as modeling and simulation verification, enabled the project and turbine to pass ex-factory inspection while also outperforming technical parameters.

Further development and commercial applications of low-frequency wind turbines will play an important role in mass development of long-distance offshore wind power projects as well as medium- and long-distance power transmission which are commonly found across long-stretches of deserts, like that of the Gobi Desert.