Image: CHN Energy
China’s state-owned energy firm China Energy Group (CHN Energy) has grid-connected a 1 GW offshore floating solar power plant in China, calling it the world’s 1st and largest of its kind open-sea offshore solar PV project.
The company claims this is the 1st time in China’s PV sector that a 66-kV offshore cable has been paired with an onshore cable for high-capacity, long-distance transmission.
The offshore PV installation has come up 8 km off the eastern coast of Dongying City in China’s Kenli district in Shandong province. CHN Energy has put up 2,934 PV platforms installed using large-scale offshore steel truss platform fixed pile foundations. Each of these platforms measures 60 m in length and 35 m in width.
The company shared that the project also integrates fish farming with PV generation to make maximum use of the marine area.
On completion, the 1 GW project is expected to generate 1.78 billion kWh annually. It will be equivalent to meeting the annual electricity needs of around 2.67 million urban residents in China.
Recently, the company also energized a 3 GW solar power plant, calling it China’s largest single-capacity PV power plant built in a coal mining subsidence area.
With over 5.9 million solar PV panels installed, the Mengxi Blue Ocean Photovoltaic Power Station is located in Otog Front Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia. It can generate 5.7 billion kWh of clean energy annually, enough to power 2 million households, according to CHN.
While China boasts a quarter of global solar capacity—double the U.S.—that only accounts for 2% of national power generation. What’s more, 11% of China’s solar and 21% of its wind power is wasted, as transmission line construction has not kept pace with soaring capacity.
Source: TaiyangNews
Image: CHN Energy