A 20 MW offshore wind turbine developed and installed by China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) began operating at the phase II Liuao offshore wind farm off southern Fujian, according to a Xinhua report dated 6 February 2026 that CTG carries on its English site.

The unit completed commissioning and started operation on Thursday, CTG announced. Xinhua calls the start-up a major technological leap for the country’s wind power industry.

CTG says this is the first time a 20 MW offshore turbine has been installed, debugged and connected to a grid anywhere in the world. Xinhua goes further and describes the machine as the world’s “most powerful” offshore wind turbine. Both descriptions come from the company and the report.

“The commissioning team overcame challenges like the monsoon winds and complex sea conditions to complete all tests efficiently,” said Jiang Guangqiu, deputy general manager of CTG’s Fujian branch.

Jiang said the unit “provides crucial technical support for the future development of offshore wind power in deeper waters.”

How big is 20 MW

CTG translates the numbers into things a reader can picture. The hub stands 174 metres above sea level, which the company says is equivalent to a 58-storey building. The rotor measures 300 metres from tip to tip, and CTG says the blades sweep an area comparable to 10 standard soccer fields.

The blades use a specially designed airfoil shape intended to get the most aerodynamic efficiency from the wind, the report says.

Weight is another figure the report gives. Through lightweight construction and what the report calls digital integration, the turbine’s weight per megawatt came in more than 20 per cent below the industry average, according to the report, which says the saving improves both wind capture and generation.

The output figures are projections. Operating at its rated condition, the report says, the single turbine is projected to generate more than 80 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to meet the yearly power consumption of about 44,000 households.

The report also estimates that the turbine’s output would save about 22,000 tonnes of standard coal and reduce carbon emissions.

The report ties those figures to operation at the turbine’s rated condition. It gives no further detail on how the projection was calculated, and no figure for how often the machine is expected to reach that condition.

Off the Fujian coast

The phase II Liuao farm lies more than 30 kilometres off the coast of southern Fujian, in what Xinhua describes as the waters off southeast China.

The report says developing a turbine of this scale presented substantial technical challenges, and Jiang said the commissioning team worked through monsoon winds and complex sea conditions to complete all tests.

The turbine stands in water deeper than 40 metres.

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