Originally published on Sustainnovate.
By Henry Lindon
The first phase of an enormous 55-megawatt solar carport is currently being built in the Chinese city of Hangzhou by the company Risen Energy. Once completed, the project will be the largest solar energy parking project in the world.
The project represents a part of the larger push within China to embrace distributed solar energy projects. Given that the country’s solar energy sector is still based mostly around utility-scale projects, the embrace has to date been a somewhat slow one.
The construction phase of the project actually began earlier this year, though a firm completion date for the first phase has yet to be revealed. The first phase of the project — which will possess a nameplate capacity of 20 megawatts (MW) — is located at the Shanghai Volkswagen Ningbo Branch.
The project is being constructed around the use of Risen Energy’s 255 W solar modules, and will reportedly be large enough to provide parking for 20,000 vehicles.
Part of the reason behind the project is apparently that Hangzhou is working to become a “low carbon city” — the exact term (translated of course) is something along the lines of becoming a “wisdom city.”
The new project will greatly trump the previous record holder for solar carports — a 10 MW project located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Image by Risen Energy
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