China's largest floating photovoltaic (PV) power station, Anhui Fuyang Southern Wind-solar-storage Base floating PV power station, achieved full capacity grid connection on Wednesday.
Located in Fuyang City of east China's Anhui Province, the new PV power station is constructed in a flooded area once used for coal mining of 867 hectares, with an overall installed gross capacity of 650,000 KW.
With 1.2 million PV modules, the solar farm boasts an area equivalent to the size of 1,300 standard football fields. Its average annual power generation is expected to reach 700 million kWh, which is equivalent to offsetting 220,000 tonnes of standard coal per year and carbon dioxide by about 580,000 tonnes.
The Fuyang Base Project is the first batch of national large-scale storage base projects in Anhui Province and the Yangtze River Delta region, integrating PV, wind power, energy storage, and subsidence area governance in an organic manner.
The whole project includes a 650 MW PV project, a 550 MW wind power project, and a 300 MW/600 MWh storage power project, posing great significance for the construction of a self-regulating water ecosystem to promote the Yangtze River Delta energy structure transformation.
A view of Anhui Fuyang Southern Wind-solar-storage Base floating photovoltaic power station in Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province. /CMG
'Fishery-photovoltaic complementary' model
The new floating PV power station fully utilizes the idle water surface in mining subsidence areas to reduce evaporation, suppress the growth of microorganisms in the water, achieving purification of water quality and long-term protection of the surrounding water environment.
While optimizing the ecological environment, the PV components are laid out reasonably on the water surface to absorb solar energy and generate electricity, forming a "fishery-photovoltaic complementary" model.
Hu Lechao, project manager of the Eastern Construction Management Department of the Three Gorges Energy Department, told China Media Group (CMG) that "we build the floating PV power station with idle water of the coal mining subsidence area, saving land resources. We improve the power generation efficiency thanks to the sound heat dissipation of the water surface. The daily power generation can meet the needs of 700,000 people for a day."