China has some of the worst air pollution in the world. However, all this seems to be changing as China takes the lead in renewable energy. The country is now the world’s largest renewable energy investor. The Chinese government promises to spend $360 billion on clean energy projects by 2020, creating 13 million new jobs in the process. And as the Huainan project demonstrates, the Asian superpower is pushing the boundaries of green tech, whether wind, solar or hydropower:
- The Chinese province of Anhui built a massive floating solar farm on top of an abandoned coal mine.
- An even larger floating solar plant will come online by May 2018.
- The new solar farms are part of the global shift away from energy generated from fossil fuels.
China just switched on the world’s largest floating solar power plant (World Economic Forum) – As well as accelerating its investment in renewables, China has also been putting the brakes on its fossil fuel consumption. In January this year, the country’s energy regulator brought a stop to more than 100 coal-fired power plants under construction across the country, with a combined output of 100 gigawatts (GW).
source: weforum.org
HOW CHINA FLOATED TO THE TOP IN SOLAR (Time.com) – New panels are being developed specifically for arid deserts and others to withstand sultry rainforests. “China is leading the way in terms of finding green solutions,” says Wu Changhua, Greater China director for the Climate Group.
China Turns On the World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm (Smithonian) – Floating on a lake over a collapsed coal mine, the power station in Anhui province can produce 40 megawatts of energy. Built by the company Sungrow Power Supply, the power plant will produce enough energy to power 15,000 homes, Zheng reports. While the company has not revealed the exact size of the operation, it produces twice as much energy as the previous holder of the largest-floating-solar-plant title, which is located in the same area and was launched by the company Xinyi Solar in 2016.
The world’s largest floating solar farm is producing energy atop a former coal mine – Floating solar farms are not new. But China is taking them to another level altogether. The previous record for the largest such farm was set in the UK by a farm that has the capacity to produce just 6.3 megawatts. A floating solar farm is more expensive to build than one on land, because it must be designed to withstand salt and humidity from water. But it has advantages: It can be built on otherwise unused surface. It works more efficiently, because the presence of water cools the panels as they generate electricity. It can mitigate evaporation of water, keeping the lake full for longer.