PRESS RELEASE: China Mobile Guangdong and Huawei have completed a 5G network project for the Jieyang Offshore Wind Farm, built by the State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC) off South China’s Guangdong province. This project extends mobile coverage 20–50 km away from the wind farm and uses digital indoor systems to provide connections inside the wind turbines. With this project, stable and efficient 5G communications can be guaranteed for offshore wind power operations, fishing safety, and emergency rescue missions.

Guangdong is China’s largest electricity consumer. Wind power is key to its green development and low-carbon transformation. To make full use of its long coastline of 4,114 km and vast sea areas of 419,300 km2 for wind power generation, Guangdong has prioritized to develop offshore wind power systems in its 2022 new infrastructure projects and also its 2021–2025 development strategy to increase the proportion of clean power in its energy mix. This will be crucial for Guangdong to pursue clean, low-carbon growth and support the national goals of carbon peaking and neutrality.

Offshore wind farms are normally 20 to 120 km away from the coastline, and therefore out of the reach of onshore base stations. Although satellites and narrowband private networks are able to support the basic voice calls and simple data collections in these offshore areas, they cannot provide the massive ultra-broadband and low-latency connections required to improve offshore information services that are tailored to wind power environments and technologies. This has resulted in high costs and slow responses to the operation and maintenance of wind power equipment.

China Mobile Guangdong and Huawei have deployed a 5G system to help SPIC resolve this challenge. Two 5G base stations are deployed at an offshore booster station 25 nautical miles away from the coastline to cover the wind farm and surrounding areas within 20–50 km. This is realized by making full use of existing optical fiber resources, equipment rooms, and power supplies of the booster station. 5G digital indoor systems are also used to ensure connections inside the wind turbines. As such, seamless high-speed 5G coverage is delivered easily and cost-efficiently without adding transmission lines, facilitating both operations in the wind farm and safe navigation in nearby waters. More importantly, stable and smooth communications provide a solid support for the wind farm to leverage HD video for regular surveillance while facilitating preventive inspection and intelligent dispatching. This enables the wind farm to benefit from digital approaches in its wind power management and intelligent equipment O&M, setting a benchmark for 5G applications in offshore wind power projects.

Improvement knows no bounds. China Mobile Guangdong will continue to optimize the networks, construct 5G base stations, innovate applications, and develop application standards for 5G offshore wind power projects in collaboration with industry, academic, and research partners. Secure and stable 5G connections are crucial for various information services in offshore wind farms. China Mobile Guangdong and Huawei will continue to explore new experiences and use cases to bring ubiquitous 5G Gigabit connections to vast blue oceans.