On March 21, the first pile was driven for the supporting wharf project of the Zhejiang Marine Engineering Intelligent Innovation Industrial Base in Zhoushan, marking the entry of China's first smart home port for the marine power transmission industry—integrating submarine cable design, construction, operation and maintenance, repair, and full-industrial-chain innovation—into the main construction phase in the sea area, pressing the "fast-forward button" for China's deep-sea offshore wind development and marine power transmission engineering construction.

The base is located in the Zhoushan Marine Engineering Intelligent Innovation Demonstration Zone on Aoshan Island and is a key basic construction project under Zhejiang Province's "Thousand Projects, Trillion Yuan" initiative and its first-class strong port program. The project plans to build a 20,000-tonne-class wharf and a trestle bridge. Once completed, the wharf will be able to simultaneously berth one 20,000-tonne-class submarine cable vessel and one 10,000-tonne-class general cargo ship, with the rear apron also accommodating four workboats. The land construction area covers approximately 69.8 mu and will include eight cable pools, one storage yard, one two-story warehouse, and related production support facilities. The project aims to create a smart "home port" covering the entire marine power transmission industrial chain—encompassing smart logistics and warehousing, technology application and transformation, core equipment R&D, and talent exchange and training—significantly enhancing China's comprehensive support capacity for submarine cable construction and operation and maintenance.

The project launch is closely aligned with the national "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" strategy and the deployment of a new energy system. As nearshore wind power development approaches saturation, expansion into deep and distant seas has become an inevitable trend, making marine power transmission technology key to supporting the high-quality development of offshore wind power. The construction of this base will effectively fill a critical infrastructure gap in China's efficient transmission and reliable operation and maintenance of deep-sea green electricity, directly supporting the national goal of exceeding 100 million kilowatts of cumulative offshore wind installed capacity during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. At the same time, as a major project under Zhejiang Province's "15th Five-Year Plan" and a key construction project of Zhoushan City, it bears the important task of promoting the quality and efficiency improvement of Zhoushan's marine economy, and is a landmark project of government-enterprise collaboration serving the national energy strategy and building a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient energy system.

It is reported that after the project is completed and put into operation, the base will deeply collaborate with scientific innovation platforms such as the Donghai Laboratory and the Ocean College of Zhejiang University, focusing on technical breakthroughs across the entire chain of "generation, transmission, storage, and use," while strengthening coordination with upstream and downstream players in the industrial chain, deepening the integration of "industry, academia, research, and application," and accelerating the R&D of innovative equipment such as underwater robots and unmanned surface vessels. Ultimately, it will be built into an innovation ecosystem hub for the entire marine power transmission industrial chain radiating across the country and even coastal countries of the "Belt and Road" initiative, as well as a benchmark for new quality productive forces in the marine sector.

Source: Qianjiang Evening News