CSIC said it would use the project to showcase its 5MW direct-drive turbine, which features a 151-metre rotor. The Chinese manufacturer installed the first prototype at the Rudong demonstration offshore wind project, in east China's Jiangsu province in 2012.
"We are looking to gather operating data under European conditions and to demonstrate to clients that the turbine can operate well," international business project manager Xinhe Zhou told Windpower Monthly.
Sources at CSIC-Haizhuang said its H151-5MW offshore turbine passed all the tests on low-voltage ride-through capability.
The direct-drive permanent-magnet turbine has 75-metre blades designed by LM Wind Power. The turbine was co-developed with Mecal, KK-Electronic and German offshore specialist Lehnhoff Consulting.
Xinhe added that CSIC already qualified, under the first stage of tendering, for the Blyth offshore demonstration project in the English North Sea. However, Xinhe said that the company eventually decided not to progress as the 99.9MW project was too large.
A further barrier to its involvement in that project was the two-month period that the UK's seabed landlord, the Crown Estate, gave developers to submit detailed plans.
A tender for the project was launched in May after the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) — which had brought the project through the consenting process — said it was no longer developing the site.
