China's largest offshore wind project has been connected to the grid and started operations in Shandong on Saturday, said its operator the State Power Investment Corporation.

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The grid connection of the second phase of SPIC's 450-megawatt U1 offshore wind project in the Shandong Peninsula marked the full-capacity operation of China's largest single-unit parity offshore wind project, it said.

The 900 MW U1 offshore wind project, which covers an area of 143 square kilometers, comprises 106 turbines, each with a capacity of 8.5 MW. SPIC applied its own in-house safety innovations across the project.

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The project is expected to provide approximately 2.55 billion kWh of clean energy annually, saving around 829,000 tons of coal and reducing carbon emissions by roughly 2.299 million metric tons per year, it said.