China’s Largest Solar-Plus-Storage Project Goes Online

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China’s largest solar-plus-storage project has been connected to the grid. How big is it — 500 megawatts (MW)? 700 MW? 1,100 MW? Nope, we’re in 2020 — it’s 2,200 MW (2.2 GW).

Sungrow, the #1 suppliers of inverters for renewable energy projects, shared the news of the new record. Along with Huanghe Hydropower Development, Sungrow had a big hand in the project.

Alongside the massive 2.2 GW solar PV park, there’s a 202.86 MW/202.86 MWh energy storage plant. Getting all of that electricity out of the vicinity and onto the broader grid presents its own challenges, and that’s where a 800kV ultra-high voltage power line comes in.

“Sungrow offers its PV and energy storage portfolio coming with an embedded sub-array energy management function that can be used to control the output of solar and storage, allowing for improved accuracy of solar generation forecasts,” the company writes. “The flexibly-built microgrid system with Sungrow PV and energy storage system can supply electricity in the early construction period, making it one of the fastest completed renewable energy projects with a construction duration of over 4 months.”

Sungrow claims to be “the world’s most bankable inverter brand,” and it backs that claim up with a stunning 120+ GW worth of the tech installed worldwide. The company, founded by university professor Cao Renxian, says it has the “largest dedicated R&D team in the industry.” Furthermore, it offers more than solar PV inverters and related tech. It also sells energy storage systems of all sizes — for utility-scale, commercial, and residential use — and it helps build floating solar PV power plants. The company has been around since 1997, when I was still in high school! That’s the extreme early days for modern solar power.

That 120+ GW network of solar PV systems using Sungrow inverters spans more than 120 countries, and it gives the company a market share of more than 15% worldwide.

As solar tech keeps improving and coming down in price, new solar records keep being set. Here are a few others from this year:

1. Elon Musk Explains Why Tesla Solar Power Reaches Record Low In USA
2. New Record-Low Solar Price Bid — 1.3¢/kWh
3. Solar PV Panels Were 12× More Expensive In 2010, 459× More Expensive In 1977
4. Solar Power Equaled 37% Of New US Power Capacity In 1st Half Of 2020
5. India’s Largest Building Integrated Vertical Solar System & The Road Ahead
6. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom To Be 80% Powered By Solar Carport
7. USA’s First 100% Solar Airport Comes Up At Chattanooga, In The Heart Of Trump Land