China connects 550MW combined floating solar and aquaculture project to power grid

The Wenzhou Taihan 550MW project, which combines floating solar with aquaculture, has been officially connected to the grid in East China.

The Wenzhou Taihan 550MW floating solar and fishing farm (Courtesy of Government of China/Photo by Xinhua)
The Wenzhou Taihan 550MW floating solar and fishing farm (Courtesy of Government of China/Photo by Xinhua)
The Wenzhou Taihan 550MW floating solar and fishing farm (Courtesy of Government of China/Photo by Xinhua)

The project, located on the beach in the enclosed area of ​​the Southern Zhejiang Industrial Cluster in Wenzhou, covers an area of ​​approximately 4.7 square kilometres with a total installed capacity.

A total of 1.428 million photovoltaic modules were installed in the project, arranged to form 24 blocks for power generation.

The project combines photovoltaic power generation with fish farming, to make better use of the available space in the sea.

The power station is expected to provide 650 million kWh of clean power to the grid each year, enough to supply power for 130,000 households, the government of China said.

“The large-scale coverage of photovoltaic power generation panels helps to regulate the temperature and oxygen content of the water body, making this tidal flat sea area more suitable for fish farming”, said project manager Wang Hairong said.

Following the connection of the power plant to the grid, the clean energy power generation capacity of the Wenzhou power grid increased by about 26%, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 648,000 tons per year, according to the government of China.