Putting wind in the sails of UK-Chinese relations

CGTN Europe

As the UK looks towards a low carbon future, China could play a key part in providing it with wind turbine technology. China and the UK have worked together in wind power technology since signing a memorandum of understanding in 2013. A visit by China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi to London could accelerate this partnership, as CGTN’s Jen Copestake reports.  X: @jencopestake

Transcript

00:00Driving innovation in wind power, China recently unveiled this unique twin rotor floating wind turbine.

00:06Called OceanX, one V-shaped structure can power 30,000 homes for three years.

00:12Chinese wind turbine maker MingYang also created the world's largest single capacity wind turbine in August last year.

00:19While not on the same scale, the UK has developed unique technology to improve wind power production

00:25and is working alongside Chinese partners.

00:28Making wind turbines more efficient is one challenge that Chinese and UK companies are collaborating on.

00:33This can include retrofitting the blades with new technology, including using aerodynamic skills honed in Formula 1.

00:40Anacata Wind Power, based in Oxford, has been working with Chinese wind farms since 2017.

00:46Chief Technology Officer Ben Wood was the head of aerodynamics for various Formula 1 teams.

00:51He's adapted techniques for aerodynamic efficiency for race cars to wind turbines.

00:57So this is called a vortexing trainer, and we currently make this part in China with our partners.

01:02And we developed it with them, we tested it out in Chinese wind farms on different Chinese technology,

01:08like MingYang or DongFang or GoldWind turbines.

01:11Some of the flow control features that have been developed in Formula 1 over the years,

01:16so shedding lots of smaller vortices rather than one large one,

01:20produces more stable aerodynamics and more stable vorticity

01:24and makes the part much more efficient for delivering torque and power on the turbine.

01:28These pieces can improve energy output by 10%, and for Anacata there has been mutual benefit working in China.

01:35The Chinese have learnt from the European wind turbine industry,

01:38the European industry will learn from the Chinese as well.

01:42They're strategically different approaches,

01:44and Chinese wind turbines tend to produce more power at a given wind speed for the same price point,

01:53and that's obviously a very attractive thing in what you'd call reduced cost of energy,

01:58so they're driving it forward from looking at that metric.

02:02No country can do it by themselves.

02:04China's growth has shown that they're going to be a key player in this renewable space,

02:09and the technology sharing is the best way to advance the progress that we all need to make,

02:14because time is not on anyone's side.

02:16The Institute for Public Policy Research also says time is not on the UK's side.

02:21In a recent report, it estimates the UK will miss its 2030 target for installing offshore wind turbines by 18 years,

02:29unless it triples its manufacturing capacity.

02:32And it needs to hit that target if it's going to achieve its goal of getting 95% of its electricity from low-carbon sources.

02:40Creating new partnerships with Chinese manufacturers could help the UK reach its target on time.

02:46Jen Copestake, CGTN, Oxford.

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