Yangjiang has quietly become a significant player in the global green energy landscape, with its offshore wind power capacity ranking first among all prefecture-level cities in China.

Many people still associate this coastal city with tourism and local specialties such as the 5A-level Hailing Island beaches, the provincial intangible cultural heritage Yangjiang black beans, the spring amomum ranked first among the four major southern medicinal herbs, and the time-honored Shibazi knives and scissors.

However, when one shifts their gaze toward the vast South China Sea and examines industry statistics and project records, a completely different Yangjiang comes into view.

In September 2017, the China General Nuclear Power Group's Yangjiang Nanpeng Island offshore wind project was officially approved, marking the beginning of large-scale offshore wind development in Yangjiang.

After nine years of construction, the city's grid-connected offshore wind capacity has reached 8,016.6 megawatts, ranking first among all prefecture-level cities nationwide.

By the end of 2026, the world's first ten-million-kilowatt-level offshore wind base will be completed here.

Today, approximately one out of every ten kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in Guangdong comes from the wind turbines off the coast of Yangjiang.

Having secured its place on the global green energy map, Yangjiang is becoming an important growth pole for the accelerated rise of China's green industry.

Developing new energy is not simply about installing more wind turbines; it requires adhering to the principle of establishing the new before abolishing the old, promoting coordinated development across generation, grid, load, and storage, balancing clean transition with energy security, and firmly holding the nation's energy lifeline in our own hands.

World-Class Projects Take Root in the South China Sea

On September 27, in the South China Sea approximately 70 kilometers offshore, the first batch of turbines for the Three Gorges Yangjiang Qingzhou Phase V and Phase VII offshore wind project was successfully connected to the grid.

Giant turbine blades rotate continuously at high altitude, and the generated current flows through submarine cables into the "Heart of Sea Wind," which is currently the world's largest offshore converter station, and then via the world's first 卤500 kV DC submarine cable, is continuously transmitted to the mainland.

The offshore converter station has a floor area close to a standard football field and a height roughly equivalent to a fifteen-story building.

Through this project, Yangjiang has achieved multiple world records: the world's largest offshore converter station system project, the world's highest voltage level offshore wind flexible DC transmission project, and the first commercial deployment of 卤500 kV DC submarine cables globally.

Major technological breakthroughs are not isolated cases. More than ten globally pioneering technologies, including typhoon-resistant floating wind turbines and 500 kV three-core submarine cables, have been demonstrated and applied in Yangjiang's waters.

Behind these major offshore projects lies an increasingly solid and complete industrial cluster.

With the Guangdong (Yangjiang) International Wind Power City as the carrier, more than forty core projects from companies such as Mingyang, Goldwind, and Orient Cable have been established, with total investment exceeding 40 billion yuan, forming the most comprehensively equipped offshore wind equipment manufacturing base in China.

Key products including complete turbines, blades, towers, and submarine cables have essentially achieved local self-reliance and controllability.

In 2025, the output value of Yangjiang's wind power equipment industrial chain enterprises above designated size exceeded 18.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 59%. "Made in Yangjiang" wind turbines and submarine cables have already been exported to Europe in batches.

The saying "World wind power looks to China, offshore wind power looks to Yangjiang" is no longer just a promotional slogan but a broad consensus formed within the domestic industry.

From Green Electricity to the Rise of Green Industry

Currently, the city is striving to transform its green electricity resource advantage into tangible industrial competitiveness.

According to the national "15th Five-Year Plan" deployment, deep-sea offshore wind power has been incorporated into the national development framework, and this new track is expected to generate nearly 900 billion yuan in industrial space.

Yangjiang plans a total offshore wind installed capacity of 20 million kilowatts, accounting for approximately one-fifth of the national planned total, holding a substantial clean energy foundation.

Yangjiang's development approach does not stop at simply transmitting electricity outward. Instead, it has identified three conversion pathways to make the most of green electricity value-added opportunities.

The first pathway is to develop the computing power industry based on green electricity.

Yangjiang Green Energy Demonstration Industrial Park is the first pilot park in China approved by the National Energy Administration for high-proportion direct green electricity supply, and leading computing power enterprises such as Alibaba Cloud have already established operations there.

Offshore wind power from the South China Sea is supplied directly to AI data centers through dedicated power lines, achieving local consumption of clean electricity and local establishment of the computing industry.

Electricity cost is the primary operating expense for computing centers.

Yangjiang can provide traceable, internationally certified affordable green electricity.

The industrial park has a planned total area of 17 square kilometers, with traceable green electricity accounting for over 70%.

Using seawater cooling and advanced liquid cooling solutions, the PUE of the undersea computing center can be controlled below 1.1, with green electricity usage exceeding 95%.

A green intelligent computing center in Yangdong District with a total investment of 8.6 billion yuan is under accelerated construction. Once completed, the project plans to gather over one hundred high-quality datasets, incubate more than one thousand industry models, and drive the formation of a 50-billion-yuan artificial intelligence industrial cluster.

The second pathway is to develop green hydrogen based on green electricity.

The Baowu Clean Energy (Yangjiang) Green Hydrogen Industrial Park, with a total investment of 11.09 billion yuan, is innovatively exploring a model of direct offshore wind-to-hydrogen production.

The project connects to 1.5 GW of offshore wind power and plans an annual hydrogen production scale of 80,000 tons, making it the largest green hydrogen project in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Next, it will establish a complete industrial chain of "green hydrogen-green ammonia-green fuel," with the goal of cultivating a trillion-yuan hydrogen energy industrial cluster.

The third pathway is to promote the conversion of green electricity into carbon assets.

As carbon tariffs gradually become a hard constraint in international trade, the carbon emission intensity of exported products directly affects enterprises' overseas operating costs.

Yangjiang's direct green electricity supply model can issue traceable green power certificates and already complies with the certification rules related to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

The local government has explicitly proposed accelerating product carbon footprint certification, promoting mutual recognition between domestic certification standards and international standards such as those of the EU, and helping local and Greater Bay Area foreign trade enterprises better respond to global green trade barriers.

It is evident that Yangjiang is pursuing a development path of "using green to make green": making good use of the continuous supply of local clean energy to manufacture various green industrial products, transforming its natural energy endowment into a cost advantage for the manufacturing sector in global competition.

Transportation and Location Advantages Drive Continuous Industrial Upgrading

No matter how strong the industrial advantages may be, without outward transportation channels, the potential can only remain on paper.

Yangjiang is continuously investing in port and comprehensive transportation construction to address the critical shortcomings in outward circulation.

Construction at the Fengtou Operation Area of the Hailing Bay Port Zone of Yangjiang Port is in full swing.

Two 50,000-ton-class multipurpose berths, F1 and F2, are reserved for 100,000-ton-class vessels and are expected to be completed by August 2026. After the subsequent F3 to F5 berths are completed and put into operation, the port area will add an annual throughput of 50 million tons, with delivery and operation planned for April 2027.

These newly built terminals are not merely for traditional ore and bulk cargo transport.

Offshore wind turbines and submarine cables, as well as high-end stainless steel products, will largely set sail from here.

Orient Cable has already established an efficient "production-transport-installation" linkage model, where finished submarine cables can be transported from the factory to the dock within two hours for direct loading and shipping.

The Guangzhou-Zhanjiang High-Speed Railway has been officially opened, bringing Yangjiang into the dual high-speed rail era, with travel to major cities in the Greater Bay Area essentially achievable within one hour.

With an airport, dual high-speed rail lines, an expressway network, and a hundred-million-ton-class port, a comprehensive three-dimensional transportation system has taken initial shape.

Yangjiang is no longer just a transit corridor in western Guangdong but an important industrial fulcrum for the Greater Bay Area's westward radiation and development.

Two rapidly growing tracks are being established in Yangjiang.

The first is commercial aerospace.

Yangjiang has become a critical fulcrum in Guangdong's commercial aerospace layout.

The city has completed five sea launch missions and successfully conducted sea recovery joint exercises for carrier rockets.

Guangdong commercial aerospace technology service platform enterprises have completed registration and establishment, striving to carry out the first official launch in the second half of 2026.

The city's long-term goal is to build a full-chain industrial cluster encompassing rocket assembly and manufacturing, sea launches, recovery and reuse, data development, and aerospace tourism.

The ability to establish sea-based aerospace operations stems from Yangjiang's unique location conditions: deep-water ports combined with open coastal airspace, achieving sea-space linkage between port resources and sea launch sites.

High-value-added industries such as aerospace new materials and aerospace electronics continue to cluster here.

The second is developing high-end advanced materials.

Yangjiang's alloy materials industry output value has exceeded 140 billion yuan.

The entire industry is moving away from the old path of simply competing on production volume and is striving toward high-value-added products.

Relying on two Guangdong provincial laboratories, local enterprises have successfully rolled 0.2-millimeter "hand-tearable steel," antibacterial stainless steel, and other high-precision steel products that can supply high-end manufacturing scenarios such as foldable screen hinges and aerospace.

A complete industrial chain from smelting to fine processing has taken shape, with twelve provincial-level enterprise technology centers cultivated and established.

Today's Yangjiang is actively embracing the new wave of China's green industry, quietly building the industrial foundation for the future.

Offshore wind power is the starting point, continuous green electricity is the important bargaining chip in hand, and building a strong and large-scale modern green industry is the farther horizon for this coastal city.