In recent years, with the deepening of China's strategy of building maritime power, the emerging industries of marine renewable energy have achieved unprecedented development and become an important starting point and engine for China's marine economic growth and national economic development. As the representative of "marine renewable energy", the offshore wind power in China has been developing at the highest speed all over the world in recent five years. All over the development cycle, including design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of offshore wind facility needs "new technical specifications and standards". As the "national team" of quality control in China’s  ships and offshore industry,  China Classification Society (CCS) especially CCS Ocean Engineering Technology Center, has invested important scientific research strength and joined hands with all parties in the industry in recent years to carry out a series of fruitful explorations and practices to escort the development of China's new marine economy and the construction of new marine facilities.

CCS gives full play to its own advantages, closely tracks and continuously investigates in the industry, and systematically sorts out the main safety risks and key technical problems of various offshore facilities in the stage of design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance. For example, the construction of offshore wind power facilities standard system obviously lags behind the development of the industry, the domestic industry standards are fragmented, and the construction standards used are immethodical. In view of the safety risks and engineering problems sorted out, the scientific research team, mainly based on CCS Offshore Engineering Technology Center, combines the mature concepts and technologies of oil and gas industry with the special needs for new marine economic facilities. After many years of research and study , the  research team has established an overall solution plan, which aims at "facility safety guarantee system" by establishing technical standard system and developing support service products. These systems and technological innovations have strongly promoted the safe, healthy and sustainable development of China's new marine economy.

CCS focuses on combining the characteristics of offshore wind power in both traditional power industry and offshore engineering industry, and innovatively puts forward corresponding standards and requirements. According to the functional characteristics of offshore substations different from oil and gas platforms, CCS puts forward technical requirements on overall layout, structure, fire protection system, escape and lifesaving system, etc. The popularization and application of these technical requirements are to respond to the actual engineering needs of the new marine economic facilities industry in a timely and rapid manner. Thus, CCS can provide solutions for facility safety risk management and control, which comprehensively guarantees the safe operation of new marine economic facilities, effectively avoids operation risks, reduces accident rates, protects the marine environment, and produces better economic, social and ecological benefits.

Based on a series of innovative achievements, CCS assisted the National Energy Administration, the Ministry of Transport and other competent authorities to formulate and issue relevant laws and regulations, and incorporated the core achievements and key technologies into national standards and industry norms for reference and adoption by the industry, thus constructing a complete set of security technology system at the level of laws, regulations and guidelines. This system covers the core facilities of offshore wind farm, clarifies the legal basis and technical requirements of safety supervision, and provides comprehensive guarantee for the healthy and orderly development of China's new marine economy.

Currently, CCS standards have been widely recognized by China's domestic offshore wind power industry participators. Offshore wind power specifications and guidelines, such as Guidelines for Inspection of Offshore Wind Farm Facilities, have been adopted by more than 50 owners, designers, builders and installers of offshore wind power facilities in China, and have been successfully applied to more than 30 offshore wind farm construction and development projects, covering Bohai Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.

To develop the new offshore economy facility, New technical standards the first important

At the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, President Xi Jinping put forward three major initiatives on global climate change issues, and further announced a series of new initiatives for China's national independent contribution. The promise of "to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060" brings new opportunities for offshore wind power development in China. It can be predicted that, following the "tide of vying with each other in offshore wind power installation due to national subsidiaries", the opening of a new window of opportunity will surely attract more new participants to join the construction tide of offshore wind power, a strategic emerging marine industry.

The addition of new participants not only brings prosperity to the new marine economy, but also challenges the industry norms. Many new marine economic formats in China are "from land to sea", for example, the offshore wind power industry was developed from onshore wind power, and most of its development enterprises and construction companies "enter the industry blindly", lacking experience in the development of offshore facilities and structures, especially lacking awareness of the development risks in deep and distant waters, which brings considerable safety, economic and environmental risks to the development of new marine economy. In recent years, due to standard mishandling  and irregular operation, there have been many accidents such as immersion of offshore wind power installations, which is distressing and regrettable.

Therefore, in order to realize the safe, healthy and sustainable development of new marine economy, it is very important to have a set of operable and scientific safety and quality standards and norms. As the legal inspection agency for ships and offshore facilities, in recent years, CCS has given full play to its own advantages, empowering the Offshore Engineering Technology Center to take the lead, gradually established a safety guarantee technology system for the whole life cycle of China's new marine economic facilities. Practice has proved that the system can comprehensively guarantee the safe operation of relevant new marine economic facilities, effectively avoid operational risks and reduce accident rates, and can also protect the marine environment and produce better economic, social and ecological benefits.

To develop the industry, standardization shall go first. However, the implementation of standards and norms cannot be separated from the efforts of every participant in the industry. On one hand, as regulators, the relevant competent departments of offshore wind power industry shall "compulsorily" introduce the safety and quality standards and specifications of new marine economic facilities at the beginning of the project establishment, so as to maximize the quality of facilities and reduce operational risks. On the other hand, the practitioners of new marine economic industry shall abandon the "empiricism" on land and strictly follow the standards and norms of new marine economic facilities. Relevant reports show that CNOOC and ChinaPetro, two traditional oil and gas energy operators, are interested in entering offshore wind power projects, and there are not a few other traditional offshore enterprises interested in transformation. It can be predicted that the rapid development of the industry will also force the improvement of industry norms. After all, "safety is the biggest saving."

Figures     Specifications and Standards for Various New Maritime Economic Facilities Issued by China Classification Society (2017-2020)