By Guan Kejiang, Ren Haoyu, People's Daily
Tian Kun Hao, the largest cutter-suction dredger in Asia, is now working in a port in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for a dredging and reclamation project of the Hudayriyat Island, which is joined by China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).
The project, expected to be completed in the first half of 2023, includes building an artificial mountain on the island, which, upon completion, will contribute to the local real estate and tourism sectors.
According to Xue Hongsheng, chief officer of the vessel, Tian Kun Hao comes with an integrated intelligent control system independently developed by China, which realizes unmanned automatic dredging.
Currently, the vessel is working in a complicated geological environment where sandstones make up the majority of the geological structure, so the operators must switch between the automatic and manual modes according to the real situation so as to achieve the highest dredging efficiency, Xue said.
Gao Jianwei, who's in charge of the dredging work on the vessel, told People's Daily that the dredge cutter teeth of Tian Kun Hao are changed every 10 hours of working as they are worn fast.
"Efficiency is important in dredging because we want to maximize the performance of machines. Therefore our workers are skilled and they can change dredge cutter teeth very fast," Gao said.
Every dredge cutter tooth weighs 37.5 kilograms, and it takes workers on the vessel less than 30 minutes to change 15 teeth.
Tian Kun Hao is equipped with four types of dredge cutter teeth and is able to cut rocks with uniaxial compressive strength of less than 50 MPa. It is learned that the teeth on the vessel have a maximum power of 6,600 kW, which makes the ship dredge 6,000 cubic meters per hour.
Mud pumps are one of the core pieces of equipment on Tian Kun Hao. The total power of mud pump motors on the vessel adds up to 17,000 kW, and the ship is able to pump dredged material as far as 15 kilometers away.
Wang Zhijun, chief engineer on the vessel, told People's Daily that inspection for mud pumps is important for maintaining the operation of Tian Kun Hao. “An inspection tour is the first mission of engine officers after every shift begins,” he added.
Wang introduced that on an inspection tour, engine officers would listen to noises, check parameters and oil leaks, smell whether there're unpleasant odors, and feel the temperature and vibration of mud pumps. Sometimes they also launch inspections for relevant devices based on the data obtained by the intelligent control system.
For Tian Kun Hao, which works 24 hours a day, the maintenance of electromechanical and power equipment is of vital importance.
After an inspection tour, engine officers on duty would go back to a control room that faces the engine of the vessel, where engine power, the status of the hydraulic system, and other information are shown on the intelligent control system. This helps them better protect the "heart" of the gigantic dredger.
On the vessel, a work summary meeting is held every week, during which captain Wang Chunmin summarizes the work and different crews introduce their work plans. Besides, work reviews, training courses, production safety education, and other activities are also frequently held on Tian Kun Hao.
Huo Zongjie, a representative onboard from CCCC Tianjin Dredging Co., Ltd. which built Tian Kun Hao, said the weekly work summary meeting is an institutional platform that promotes exchanges and helps solve problems during work.
Huo noted that this is the first arrival of the Chinese dredger in the Middle East this time, where it is competing with its peers from the Netherlands and BelgBy Ding Yiting, People's Daily
A wind farm consisting of 125 smart wind turbines is currently under construction in the Kazak autonomous county of Mori, Changji Hui autonomous prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Each of the wind turbines has a diameter of 186 meters and they are expected to generate 2.2 billion kWh of clean electricity on an annual basis.
According to Gao Xiang, vice general manager of the company that developed the wind farm, which is also a subsidiary of Huadian Xinjiang Power Co., Ltd., with sensors installed in the parts of the wind turbines and advanced control technology and algorithm, the wind turbines can detect potential variations of the wind to maximize their performance.
Besides, smart equipment in the wind turbines can also monitor the status of the towers and the vibration of the rotors, which helps reduce the loss of possible malfunctions and shutdowns, Gao noted, adding that the operation and maintenance cost of the smart wind turbines is 20 percent lower than that of traditional types.
The new energy sector, represented by wind power, is developing rapidly and gaining increasingly higher competitiveness in China.
As more and more new energy projects are built across the country, which fuels market competition, lowering costs and improving efficiency through digitalization and the application of intelligent technologies have become vital for many enterprises.
Qin Haiyan, head of the Chinese Wind Energy Association under the China Renewable Energy Society, told People's Daily that the engineering quality and reliability of wind power equipment have been continuously improved over the years, and these pieces of equipment are becoming more digital, intelligent, and customized.
Today, the efficiency of China's wind power generation is up 30 percent from a decade ago. According to statistics, the levelized costs of energy for wind and photovoltaic power generation in 2021 were down by 48 percent and 70 percent from 2012, respectively. This has laid a solid foundation for the large-scale and market-oriented development of the new energy sector.
In Jiaxing, east China's Zhejiang province, "super roofs" that are able to generate electricity are employed by a building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) project launched by Beijing Energy International Holding Co., Ltd., a leading provider of global eco-development solutions.
Different from the traditional model under which PV panels are installed on mounting systems, the BIPV project adopts multi-layer roofs with built-in solar panels.
"BIPV makes photovoltaic power generation an integral part of buildings," said Zhong Baoshen, chairman of LONGi, the world's leading supplier of solar PV solutions based in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi province. No space for mounting systems is needed, so it is able to fit larger PV panels and thus increase generating capacity by about 15 percent, Zhong noted.
He told People's Daily that the technology, apart from being promoted among new buildings, also enjoys large development potential in the market of roofing renovation.
Green electricity resources are being employed by a number of areas across China to build zero-carbon industrial parks. In an industrial park in Erdos, north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, 80 percent of electricity consumed comes from local wind and PV power generation systems, while the remaining 20 percent is green electricity purchased from the National Grid.
Apart from the industrial and construction sectors, the vast countryside in China also provides a huge developmen spacet for new energy.
"I had to spend more than 300 yuan ($43.46) per month on the lighting of my cowshed. It is the PV panels on my roof that have reduced my electricity cost," said Party head of Huatugula village, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, referring to a comprehensive intelligent new energy project in the village, one of the many PV and wind power projects built by the State Power Investment Corporation in the village last year.
Sun Wen from the corporation told People's Daily that the company has rented local saline and alkaline land and managed to improve the soil quality of it. The land was later contracted to the villagers for free, and PV panels were installed on it.
"The village can also make 100,000 yuan per year from land lease," Sun said.
Promoting rural wind power and PV development is an important approach to reaching the "dual carbon" goals as well as an effective measure to expand the collective economy of villages and increase farmers' income.
A plan on renewable energy for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025) proposed to vigorously build county-level wind power projects in rural areas, and encouraged the construction of distributed PV panels on the roofs of rural houses meeting the specific standards and designated sites in villages.
"According to estimation, a village can gain an extra 200,000 yuan each year if it spares 200 square meters of land and installs two to three wind turbines on it," said Qin.
An official with the National Energy Administration told People's Daily that China will focus on the diversified development of the energy sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, promote the integrated development of PV-assisted desert control, PV corridor, offshore wind power, and offshore oil and gas, launch demonstration projects such as massive hydrogen production through renewable energy, and explore new development models under which multiple energy sources complement each other and are comprehensively utilized in multiple scenarios.
ium. "We are confident in demonstrating a good image of Chinese enterprises," he said.
Environmental health and safety manager Amir Mahmoud of the dredging and reclamation project of the Hudayriyat Island has been working in the Middle East for over 10 years and visited dredgers manufactured by multiple companies.
"The size of and standard operation on Tian Kun Hao just shocked me when I first got onto it," he said.
Mohammed Saleh, director of the project from the UAE's National Marine Dredging Company told People's Daily that Tian Kun Hao has its own features when compared with the latest European dredgers.
He hailed the China-developed automatic dredging system of the vessel, which shows plain information and data and is easy to operate. He also spoke highly of the clean environment and the competence of the staff members on the dredger.
