A platform the size of a football pitch and as tall as a 15-storey building has been sent to a wind farm in Yangjiang for installation

As reported by CCTV+, on Wednesday, China launched the world’s largest offshore power conversion station, the “Heart of Offshore Wind Power”, in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. The event marked the beginning of the era of ultra-high voltage direct current transmission.

The 25,000-ton platform was sent to an offshore wind farm in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, for installation. The station serves as the “heart” of the offshore wind farm: it collects and steps up the alternating current generated by individual wind turbines, converts it into high-voltage direct current, and then transmits it to the onshore grid via submarine cables.

The platform is 85.5 metres long, 82.5 metres wide and 44 metres high. Its area is equivalent to a standard football pitch, and its height is roughly that of a 15-storey residential building.

Yang Bing, project manager of the “Heart of Offshore Wind Power” at the Guangdong branch of China Three Gorges Corporation, explained: “This is the world’s first flexible offshore DC converter station with a rated voltage of ±500 kV and a capacity of 2,000 MW. It uses the country’s most advanced modular and compact power transmission system. Thanks to its compact design and limited space and weight, all the electrical energy from the wind turbines of both wind farms is fully collected at this single substation, where voltage boosting and power conversion are carried out. This significantly reduces the overall project cost and saves offshore space.”

25,000 tons of steel. The size of a football pitch. The height of a 15-storey building. 2,000 MW of capacity. And all of it — the “heart” — will beat underwater, gathering the energy of the wind and sending it to the shore. China is not just building wind turbines — it is creating a new generation of energy systems. Ultra-high voltage DC transmission. A compact substation. Saving space and money. The question is not whether China can become a leader in green energy. It already has. The question is how quickly the rest of the world will start copying this technology. While others debate the climate, China has already plugged its heart into the grid. And it is beating.