Energy & Science

China Needs Turbine ‘Commando Teams’ to Beat a Wind Power Deadline

  • Firms retrofit oil ships to erect more turbines in time
  • Projects that miss deadline will see rates cut in half
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With just two weeks to go before a year-end deadline for subsidies, China’s massive utilities are pulling out all the stops to finish offshore wind projects on time.

Power giants have retrofitted offshore oil service vessels with turbine-hoisting cranes and set up “special commando teams” working 24 hours a day in order to connect to the grid in time. And it seems to be working -- BloombergNEF expects a record of about 10.6 gigawatts to be finished, up from a midyear forecast of 7.8.