Touching the Greater Bay Area: International students explore environmental protection project in S China's Guangdong

In recent years, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has heavily invested in clean energy and environmental protection. Li-xian Choong and Romano Tucci, two students from Cambridge University, paid a visit to an offshore wind farm operated by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) while participating in "Touching the Greater Bay Area", a cultural exchange program co-organized by Guangdong Radio and Television, and People's Daily Online (UK). They were joined by Hui Cheuk Chi, a student from Hong Kong.

The offshore wind farm consists of 104 wind turbines and was put into operation in December 2023. Located at the Huizhou Port in south China's Guangdong Province, the project is the largest wind power generating farm in the Greater Bay Area.

As an integral part of new quality productive forces, clean energies have become essential in making people's lives better and more sustainable.

"The annual power output equals that produced by 1 million tonnes of standard coal. The wind farm can reduce 2.35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is equivalent to planting 6,750 hectares of trees," said Chen Yansheng, the deputy manager of CGN New Energy Holdings Co. (Huizhou).

In the first half of the year, around 35.1 percent of power generated came from renewable resources in China, of which solar and wind power combined generated 20 percent of the total electricity nationwide, marking a year-on-year increase of 23.5 percent, according to data released by China's National Energy Administration.

Having previously worked in the environmental sector, Malaysian student Choong was deeply inspired by the project and accentuated the importance of green energies to Asia and ASEAN.

"To see that China has been able to innovate this far, it's really interesting. It's really interesting implications for green tech and green energy throughout the rest of the world, especially in Asia and ASEAN where I'm from," said Choong.

Majoring in Chinese and fluent in Mandarin, Romano Tucci is no stranger to China. However, the visit to the wind farm was beyond his expectations and strengthened his support for clean energies.

"This is the first time I've ever been in a place like this," said Tucci. "There is no planet B. We need to divest in fossil fuels and probably invest in this [wind farm]."