World's Largest Floating Solar Power Plant in China Connected to Grid

The world's largest floating solar power plant in China is now operational and connected to the grid. It was built by Sungrow Power Supply Co., a supplier of photovoltaic (PV) inverter systems.

The world's largest floating solar power plant is a 40-megawatt facility. It was built floating in water that is four to 10 meters deep. The plant was successfully linked to the Huainan, China's grid to supply power to the residents in the area.

The success of the floating solar power plant is widely recognized worldwide. Futurism reported that due to the coal mining operations previously held in the location of the floating solar power plant, the water became mineralized and useless. Thus, constructing a power plant in the area is a fitting solution in order to make use of the area.

The lake is actually a by-product of a mining company. It formed from the collapse of surrounding land, which created the cavity that was eventually filled up with rainwater.

Although technically useless to humans, the water where the floating solar power plant was built is helpful for the mechanism. It helps cool down the system to improve power generation and to prevent damages from the heat.

Using the idle lake also helped the government to refrain from using residential and agricultural areas to built power plants. In order to harvest more energy for the grid, more solar panels should be used in power plants. Huge power plants like this require huge chunks of land. This plant from China is a good example of generating power without using up space in populated areas.

Although considered one of the worst polluters in the world, China is now active in their drive towards using renewable energy. Because of the success of the floating solar power plants in China, experts say that by 2020, PV manufacturers can actually cut down the cost to up to more than a third with solar power plants dominating over coal facilities.