Three Gorges News

Two Ulstein-designed Service Operation Vessels (SOV) for Shanghai Electric were launched at the ZPMC construction yard in China on Saturday, September 16.The two vessels are of the ULSTEIN SX195 and SX197 design, carrying 100 POB and 60 POB, respectively. According to Ulstein, these SOVs are the first purpose-made SOVs for China's offshore wind farms and are scheduled to enter service in 2024."The two vessels have Ulstein's iconic design features, the ULSTEIN X-BOW and X-STERN, providing a highly efficient, robust, and state-of-the-art O&M service platform to the end customers.

WTIVs have always been fuel-hungry. Now they are being tasked with installations that are further, deeper and heavier.Offshore wind farms continue their march into deeper water, further from shore, with turbines that can now reach more than 270 meters high with blades 120 meters long. Designers and OEMs are pushing efficiency to new levels to contain OPEX on the new-generation jack-up WTIVs taking them up there.Danish ship design firm Knud E. Hansen has chosen specialization for its Atlas A-class WTIV, a smaller derivation of its massive C-class design.

China’s first hydrogen fuel cell powered boat “Three Gorges Hydrogen Boat No. 1” has been launched in Guangdong.“Three Gorges Hydrogen Boat No. 1” is a 164 foot long, 33 foot wide passenger catamaran capable of reaching a maximum speed of 17 miles/hr. It is powered by a 500 kW hydrogen fuel cell with a 1,800 kWh lithium battery system and has a range of 124 miles. The steel-hulled vessel has an aluminum superstructure and glass curtain wall construction.It is expected to lead…

The installation on what is reported to be the world’s largest offshore converter station is being hailed by China Classification Society (CCS) as ‘a significant milestone’ in the development of deep-water wind power. CCS provided authentication and survey services for the China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG) Rudong offshore converter station, which is also an Asian first.CCS says the facility effectively addresses the challenges of large capacity and long-distance power transmission presented by offshore wind farms.

Finland's marine engine and equipment maker Wärtsilä said Friday it would deliver the steerable and tunnel thrusters for two new wind farm turbine installation vessels being built for the China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC), a China state-owned power company. The ships will serve China’s expanding offshore wind power sector. The orders were placed by CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co, the yard building a 2000-ton wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV), and by China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co, the yard building a 3000-ton heavy lift vessel.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for achieving high-quality economic growth through developing the Yangtze River economic belt. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a symposium on promoting the development of the Yangtze River economic belt in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province. He stressed the importance of enhancing reform and innovation, strategic coordination as well as planning and guiding in developing the economic belt. "It is a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee and a major strategy concerning overall national development to promote the development of the Yangtze River economic belt," Xi said.

Severe floods are expected on China's Yangtze River this year due to a strong El Nino weather pattern, state media said, raising the risk of deaths and damage to property and crops along the country's longest waterway. The El Nino conditions are the strongest since records collection began in 1951, and resemble a 1998 weather pattern that flooded the river and killed thousands, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday, citing vice minister of water resources, Liu Ning. "Precipitation in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the river is forecast to be as much as 80 percent more than normal from May to August," Xinhua said. Some Yangtze tributaries had already begun flooding and the flood control and drought relief situation was "extremely severe"…

The sinking of a cruise boat on China's Yangtze River is likely to mar the country's generally clean maritime safety record, which hasn't suffered an incident of this magnitude since a passenger steamship blew up almost 70 years ago. The Eastern Star, which was carrying 458 people, capsized in a storm late on Monday, state media said, with those on board ranging in age from three to more than 80. Six bodies have been found and over a dozen people rescued, but more than 430 are still unaccounted for. The incident comes after China has beefed up maritime safety regulations in recent years, with authorities becoming even more stringent after last year's South Korean ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people, industry insiders said.

Ship capsizes in "tornado" on southern stretch of Yangtze. Rescuers fought bad weather on Tuesday as they searched for more than 400 people, many of them elderly Chinese tourists, missing after a cruise boat was buffeted by a freak tornado and capsized on the Yangtze River. The accident on Monday night is likely to end up as China's worst shipping disaster in almost 70 years. Divers and other rescue workers pulled five people they found trapped in the upturned hull of the four-deck Eastern Star, a fraction of the 458 people state media reported were on board when the ship capsized. Distraught relatives of some of the passengers scuffled with officials in the city of Shanghai, where many of those on board booked their trips, angry about what they said was a lack of information.

China and Brazil sealed their expanding commercial partnership on Thursday with a $5 billion credit line for Brazilian miner Vale and the purchase of 60 passenger jets from Brazilian planemaker Embraer. In a raft of energy, finance and industry accords signed before presidents Xi Jinping and Dilma Rousseff, the two nations agreed to join forces to build railways to help Brazil cut its infrastructure deficit and feed China's appetite for commodities. Trade between China and Brazil soared to $83.3 billion last year from $3.2 billion in 2002, with iron ore, soy and oil making up the bulk of Brazilian exports, making China the South American nation's biggest trade partner.

According to a report on www.chinadaily.com.cn, a new cruise ship will soon set sail to the Yangtze River's Three Gorges Dam. The "Yangtze River No. 2," a 139-m, six-storey cruise ship, will embark on its maiden voyage from the southwestern Chongqing Municipality to the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei's Yichang City on August 29, www.chinadaily.com.cn reported, citing an official of Changjiang (Yangtze) Cruise Overseas Travel Co., the operator of the ship. Yangtze River No. 2, the third luxury cruise ship to set sail this year, is dubbed the largest river cruise ship. It can accommodate up to 452 people and has a swimming pool, a theater as well as luxury suites equivalent to a five-star hotel.

Imagine earning $1.25 a day to wade through knee-deep mucky waters on a beach in Bangladesh, to dismantle enormous ships with little more than hand tools. This practice is conducted every day by Bangladeshi laborers who work as ship breakers. These vessels, many of which are cast-off single hull tankers, are dismantled in mostly unhealthy, hazardous and sometimes deadly conditions. Toronto, Canada-based photographer Edward Burtynsky traveled to the beaches of Chittagong, Bangladesh in 2000 and 2001 to capture on film a process few have seen before. MR/EN spoke with Burtynsky, and with his cooperations presents a selection of his photographs taken on location a ship breaking facility. – By Regina P.

The Yangtze River Maritime Safety Administration started the global position system (GPS) to monitor 107 passenger ships sailing in the Three Gorges enveloped by a dense fog. It ordered the ships to stop and wait by sending short text messages after the fog became too dense for sailing. Since China's Spring Festival travel season started three days ago, 50,000 passengers have safely traveled in and out of the Three Gorges. The upper reaches of Yangtze River, China's longest, have been hit by extreme dense fogs recently. As a measure of preventing sailing accidents, maritime authorities equipped passenger ships in the river with GPS facilities free of charge. Knowing the location of each ship, the authorities can easily monitor and manage the sailing in the river.