GUANGDONG, China — Along the southern coast of China, a new skyline is emerging over the South China Sea, towering wind turbines, some as high as 30-storey buildings, are defying nature’s wrath by turning deadly typhoons into a source of renewable power.
In Guangdong province, home to nearly 15 P.c of the world’s offshore turbines, China is racing to build a new generation of wind farms engineered not only to survive tropical cyclones but also to harness their energy.
The local government plans to more than double its offshore capacity within the next five years, cementing the region’s role as a global hub for green innovation.
“It’s extremely important that turbines installed in typhoon regions can not only resist but also harness strong gusts in the lead-up to their arrival,” says Zhu Ronghua, Director of the Yangjiang Offshore Wind Energy Laboratory.
Typhoons, the same phenomenon as hurricanes, routinely strike China’s coastlines with winds surpassing 200 km/h.
In September, Typhoon Ragasa, the world’s strongest storm this year, brought devastating gales of 241 km/h, forcing over 2.2 million people to evacuate in Guangdong.
Yet amid the chaos, some wind farms stood firm, capturing unprecedented amounts of clean energy.
During Ragasa’s onslaught, Goldwind turbines in Xuwen County withstood wind speeds of up to 161 km/h for six hours, generating 2.1 GWh of power, enough to supply more than 2,100 Chinese citizens for an entire year.
“Our innovations in stronger materials and real-time monitoring allowed us to keep operations stable even as the storm intensified,” a Goldwind spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Mingyang Smart Energy Group’s OceanX model, featuring two counter-rotating turbines on a floating foundation, demonstrated remarkable resilience.
Tethered to the seabed by a single pivot point, the platform can align itself with the wind — reducing strain and maintaining balance during extreme conditions.
“As long as the turbines face the typhoon, the forces they endure remain minimal,” explains Wang Chao, the turbine’s chief designer.
The OceanX foundation, made from ultra-high-performance concrete four times tougher than the conventional kind, successfully weathered Typhoon Yagi last year and withstood Ragasa’s 152 km/h winds this September.
China’s offshore turbines face an average of 100 typhoons during their 25-year lifespan. The country’s wind engineers are therefore experimenting with “downwind” blades, inspired by the flexibility of palm trees, that bend with the wind rather than resist it.
“This could revolutionize offshore wind design and cut material costs,” notes Prof. Lucy Pao of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Despite setbacks, including snapped towers in Hainan during Yagi China’s innovations are positioning it as a world leader in typhoon-resistant renewable technology.
Over the next decade, the country aims to add 170 GW of new offshore capacity, with 60 P.c of it in typhoon-prone waters.
“Tropical cyclones are destructive,” observes Prof. Xiaoli Guo Larsén of the Technical University of Denmark, “but they also offer an opportunity for humans to engineer the ultimate turbines — machines that not only survive nature’s fury but turn it into power.”
As climate change fuels stronger storms, China’s typhoon-proof wind farms stand as both a symbol of resilience and a blueprint for a greener, storm-ready future.
