CCTV once again focused on Sany Renewable Energy, and the "Lighthouse Factory" lit up the road to lean manufacturing

A few days ago, the 2025 Beijing International Wind Energy Exhibition came to a successful conclusion, and the "value question" of China's wind power industry in the new era has once again focused on the cutting-edge practices of product innovation and intelligent manufacturing.

On October 26, CCTV Financial Channel's series of reports on "Into the "Lighthouse Factory", focusing the lens on the intelligent manufacturing benchmark of the wind power industry - Sany Renewable Energy Shaoshan Blade "Lighthouse Factory", CCTV reporter explored the first "lighthouse factory" in the global wind power industry to see how it can improve the manufacturing quality and efficiency of wind power equipment to an unprecedented height with the deep integration of digitalization, automation and intelligence.

Original report

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed that we should adhere to the focus of economic development on the real economy and adhere to the direction of intelligent, green and integrated integration. Sany Renewable Energy's Shaoshan blade factory was rated as the world's first "lighthouse factory" in the wind power industry, let us follow the reporter's lens and walk into this "lighthouse factory" to see how our country's wind power equipment manufacturing industry develops intelligently, green and integrated, and transforms from "the world's largest manufacturing base" to "the most efficient manufacturing highland".

CCTV reporter Yang Ziwei: In this lighthouse factory, the longest wind turbine blade can be produced up to 118 meters, and the production time of such a 100-meter blade has been shortened from more than 40 hours to about 30 hours now.

Peng Haibing, deputy general manager of Sany Renewable Energy Shaoshan Blade Factory: This 118-meter blade is currently the longest blade type that can be commercially used on land, its wind wheel diameter is 242 meters, the weight has reached more than 40 tons, and its rated power is 7.7 megawatts, which is equivalent to generating 7-8 degrees of electricity per turn.

Peng Haibing said that as the largest single wind turbine blade production workshop in Asia, it can accommodate 12 sets of molds for simultaneous production, and can produce about 3,000 onshore wind turbine blades with a length of 80 meters per year.

Peng Haibing, deputy general manager of Sany Renewable Energy Shaoshan Blade Factory: The factory is in full production throughout the year, we take October as an example, 8 molds of 174 100-meter-level blades are molded in the production capacity, 57 sets are put into storage, and more than 100 sets are shipped. The annual production capacity will be released this month, and the next two months will also be a very large delivery cycle.

Under the current trend of large-scale wind turbines, the length of the blades quickly exceeded 100 meters. In addition to fast production speed, it should also have high strength, light weight, and small production deviation. The harshness of materials and processes also puts forward higher requirements for the transformation of this blade factory from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing".

CCTV reporter Yang Ziwei: Through the tablet I am holding, I can monitor the production and operation data of the factory in real time. From the temperature and humidity of the production unit to the technical indicators such as the blade grinding and flatness coefficient, they can be presented in real time on this platform, so as to achieve 360-degree online monitoring and refined management.

Xie Mengru, engineer of Sany Renewable Energy Intelligent Research Institute: The digital meta platform can be understood as a "smart brain" of our factory, which is equivalent to us building a virtual factory on the computer that is exactly the same as the actual workshop, helping us reduce defects by 20% and shorten the delivery time by about 34%.

This lighthouse factory in the world's first wind power industry not only illuminates the workshop production line, but also drives the coordinated upgrading of the entire industry chain. The company also transmits production demand to suppliers in real time through the supply chain collaboration platform to achieve precise supply and inventory optimization.

Peng Haibing, deputy general manager of Sany Renewable Energy Shaoshan Blade Factory: The FRP extreme plate material we see now is used to produce the main bearing structure of the blade, which is equivalent to the human spine. In the early days of the establishment of the factory, we also introduced upstream and downstream suppliers, such as our supplier in Chongqing, which has set up a special factory in Shaoshan to match the supply of the factory.

According to a research report released by Morgan Stanley, in recent years, our country's installed capacity of wind turbines has maintained a rapid growth trend, with 54 GW of new installed capacity in the first seven months of 2025, and is expected to add about 106 GW throughout the year, and the average annual new installed capacity will exceed 110 GW during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

In the first eight months of 2025, the bidding price of onshore wind turbines (excluding towers) increased by 8% compared with 2024, and the price of offshore wind turbines increased by 12%, driving the profitability of the wind power equipment industry to increase. Experts said that our country's huge market size and advanced wind power equipment technology will further strengthen our country's dominant position in the global wind power industry.

Huang Shoudao, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Offshore Wind Power Equipment of Hunan University: Hunan has already formed a joint force of the wind power industry to serve the national strategy, and the breakthrough of the Shaoshan plant is a concentrated embodiment of the advantages of the cluster. Taking the Shaoshan Lighthouse Factory as a benchmark to promote the digital transformation of the whole industry, this model provides a replicable path for our country's wind power equipment to transform from "the world's largest manufacturing base" to "the most efficient manufacturing highland", and supports the large-scale, efficient utilization and sustainable development of renewable energy.