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The scale of solar projects has gotten unfathomable. About 10 years ago, I visited a 100-megawatt solar power plant in Crimea, Ukraine. You could ride around the solar power facility on a 4-wheeler for about 15 minutes. The solar panels went further than I could see. 100 megawatts is tiny now. We now get news of 1,000-megawatt (1-gigawatt) solar projects. Even just in the past month, one company, CHN Energy, has powered on a 3-gigawatt solar PV power plant and a 1-gigawatt offshore solar PV power plant.
1-Gigawatt Offshore Solar Power Plant
The 1-gigawatt offshore solar project is located in Kenli District in east China’s Shandong Province. CHN Energy says it’s “the first and largest of its kind in the world” that will “serve as a model for the development of large-scale offshore PV projects in the industry.” The project is located approximately 8 kilometers off the coast of Dongying City.
The giant offshore PV power plant is expected to produce 1.78 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough for about 2.67 Chinese residents. Here are some more details on the project from the company: “This globally pioneering initiative features 2,934 PV platforms installed using large-scale offshore steel truss platform fixed pile foundations. Each platform measures 60 meters in length and 35 meters in width. Notably, this project marks the first time in China that a 66-kilovolt offshore cable paired with an onshore cable has been used for high-capacity, long-distance transmission in the PV sector.”
3-Gigawatt Solar Power Plant
Just a week and a half before announcing that it had turned on that giant offshore solar project, CHN Energy announced a solar project three times its size had been connected to the grid. The 3-gigawatt “Mengxi Blue Ocean Photovoltaic Power Station” is expected to produce 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough for approximately 2 million Chinese households.
This project is reportedly “China’s largest single-capacity photovoltaic power plant built on coal mining subsidence area.” By the way, how many solar panels does it take to provide 3 gigawatts of solar power capacity? Any guesses? The answer follows three pics of this solar project.
The answer is: 5.9 million solar PV panels. 5.9 million! It’s crazy, unfathomable.
“The power station site hosts the country’s first large-scale outdoor photovoltaic testing base in a desert-Gobi-wasteland climate zone, providing an effective model for large-scale solar development in such areas,” CHN Energy writes. “The project also marks the first large-scale use of new rare earth alloy grounding materials, which has lowered overall costs by 40%. In addition, steel has been used instead of traditional concrete for the solar panel foundations, reducing the impact on the grassland ecosystem. This photovoltaic + ecological model effectively cuts reliance on fossil fuels, achieving substantial carbon and pollution reduction.”
Impressive. Clearly, CHN Energy is eager to break new ground, innovate, and lead the way in further greening one of the greenest industries on the planet. What giant solar power plant is CHN Energy going to launch next? What interesting angle will it take? We’ll keep our eyes peeled and keep you posted.
Apologies for the low-quality photos. That’s what CHN Energy has provided.
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