China Gets World’s Largest Offshore Solar PV Project While USA … I Better Not Speak
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When I started covering the solar industry, the largest solar power project in the world had 100 megawatts (MW) of power capacity. This month, the largest offshore solar PV project build in the open sea (not a lake) was deployed, and it’s rated at 1,000 MW, or one gigawatt.
Naturally, this project was not built in the United States, but in China. The offshore solar PV project was built off the coast of Dongying in the Yellow Sea.
The HG14 offshore solar PV project was developed by Guohua Investment under China Energy Investment Corp. (CHN Energy). It’s in shallow water 8 kilometers off the shore, covering 1,223 hectares, with electricity transferred to shore via a 66 kV subsea cable system. “A co-located 100 MW/200 MWh energy storage system enhances grid stability and dispatch flexibility,” pv magazine writes. “The transmission design is reported to increase capacity by 20% while reducing unit costs by 15%.”
The massive offshore solar power project required CNY 8.1 billion ($1.16 billion) of investment.
Here are some more stats and facts on the project:
- 2,934 steel PV platforms (60 meters × 35 meters)
- 11,736 steel piles supporting the platforms
- 2.3 million 710 W n-type bifacial modules, each tilted at a 15-degree angle
- 5% to 15% greater efficiency expected from being offshore (due to cooler temps and sunlight being reflected from the water)
- 1.78 TWh expected electricity generation annually, or ~60% of the Kenli district’s electricity demand
- 1.34 million tons of CO₂ emissions avoided compared to burning coal.
Overall, it’s a very forward thinking, progressive, efficient, money saving, intelligent clean energy project. I was tempted to bring in the context of why a country led by a Homer Simpson type of idiot or a selfish, narrow-minded, greedy Mr. Burns — or some combination of the two — is not the country leading the world with such a deployment, but I better just not write about that and end the story there.
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