World’s largest floating PV plant goes online in China

January 5, 2022 | Renewables | Energy Facts Staff Writer | 2min

Huaneng Power International has switched on a 320 MW floating PV array in China’s Shandong province. It deployed the plant in two phases on a reservoir near its 2.65 GW Dezhou thermal power station.

Huaneng-Power-International

Huaneng Power International Company

Huaneng Power International (HPI) has completed the world’s largest floating PV project – a 320 MW facility in Dezhou, in China’s Shandong province.

World’s-largest-floating-PV-plant-in-China

World’s largest floating-PV plant

It deployed the floating array on a reservoir near Huaneng Power’s 2.65 GW Dezhou thermal power station.

It built the solar plant in two phases with capacities of 200 MW and 120 MW, respectively. The first phase, which included the deployment of 8 MWh of storage capacity, was completed in 2020, while the second phase was finished between mid-September and the end of December. The facility is expected to generate around 550 million kWh of electricity per year, the company said, without disclosing additional technical details.

In mid-December, the company also commissioned a 130 MW solar plant in an intertidal zone near Yuhuan, Zhejiang province. It described the Qinggang Photovoltaic Power Station as China’s first intertidal PV project, with 242,000 solar modules deployed across an area spanning 1.2 million square meters.

The project is expected to produce around 150 million kWh per year. It will be resistant to typhoons and water corrosion, among other harsh environmental factors, said the company.

Huaneng Power also plans to build a 2 GW solar plant in Fengcheng, Jiangxi province. The experimental array will include floating PV, agrivoltaics and solar parks on fishponds. The first 320 MW unit will be completed this year, with the rest of the capacity to be installed by 2026.