The floating solar power plant is located about 8 km off the coast of Dongying City on China’s east coast, next to the Bohai Sea.

CHN said the project covers an area of ​​approximately 1,223 hectares and includes 2,934 solar photovoltaic platforms installed using large-scale steel truss fixed pile foundations.

The floating solar PV project also includes a 66 kV offshore cable combined with an onshore cable, which is a first for the Chinese market.

In addition, the project uses an integrated fisheries and solar photovoltaic energy development model, combining fish farming and photovoltaic energy production to improve the overall utilization of the marine area.

China focuses on international floating solar PV

Floating solar power continues to attract international attention. Last year, China Energy Engineering Corporation, another branch of China Energy, proposed to build another 1 GW floating solar PV installation in Zimbabwe. It is worth noting that Africa and China have become increasingly closer politically, with China considered the continent’s largest trading partner.

Zimbabwe’s floating solar installation would be developed at the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River, Africa’s fourth largest river. The river flows through Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique before merging with the Indian Ocean.

According to a Reuters report, the project would involve an investment of $987 million. It would deploy around 1.8 million solar photovoltaic modules on the reservoir atop Kariba Dam, the world’s largest artificial lake.

Domestically, China is also looking to increase its installed capacity of floating photovoltaic solar panels. Another branch of China Energy, CGN New Energy Holdings, commissioned a 400 MW offshore solar photovoltaic project in August 2024. The facility would be located in Laizhou Bay and would be the country’s first large-scale deep-water offshore solar project.

Also located in the Bohai Sea near Zhaoyuan Town, east of Dongying City, the project covers 6.4 square kilometers and includes 121 photovoltaic sub-arrays. Chinese module manufacturer Grand Sunergy supplied its Seapower module series for the project, bifacial panels that use heterojunction (HJT) cells to maximize power generation.

Photovoltaic technology bonus has already analyzed the evolution of the technological profile of floating solar construction, and the most recent issue of our downstream journal, Photovoltaic technology power supplyfeatured a deep dive into the future of offshore floating solar, from pilot projects to larger-scale projects.