China begins installing giant wind turbine

The installation work for a wind turbine with an installed capacity of 16 megawatts began Tuesday morning at an offshore wind farm in Pingtan, Fujian province.

Independently developed by China, the turbine, the first in the world with such a large capacity, has three blades with each boasting a length of 123 meters, which is the longest windmill blade ever installed in China, according to a report by China Media Group on Tuesday.

The lifting and installation work for the first blade started at around 7 am on Tuesday. And it was docked with the turbine's hub after more than two hours' work, at a height of around 152 meters above the sea, the report said.

According to the report, the giant windmill was installed at a site that's about 35 kilometers away from the shoreline and is fixed on the seabed in a water depth of about 40 meters.

In the next three hours, work such as tightening bolts and equipment inspection will be completed, after which a second blade will be installed.

The diameter of the turbine's impeller is 252 meters, which can sweep an area of about 50,000 square meters, equivalent to the area of 7 standard soccer fields, the report said.

When put into operation, the windmill can generate about 66 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year on average, meeting the normal electricity consumption of 36,000 households of three for a year.