China is jumping on the solar farming bandwagon as they have decided to provide a tinge of green in the incredibly polluted and smoky canvas their country has turned into. The government of China has installed a 40-megawatt solar farm in the Southern Anhui province, which will be larger than any of the floating farms in Australia and India. The floating solar panel farm is one of the largest in the world and is capable of producing enough clean energy to power every house in the area.
The city of Huainan is more popularly known for its rich coal reserves, but the idea for floating solar farm comes after a fight against a catastrophic rainy weather that resulted in severe flooding.
The panels use cooler air at the surface to minimize the risk of panel overheating, which increases their efficiency. Daily Commercial News reports that the panels are connected to a central inverter and combiner box, which are supplied by a private company Sungrow and are custom made to work with the floating power plants. This makes the panels resistant to high levels of humidity and damage due to exposure to the water.
A spokesperson for the government said,
“The plant in Huainan not only makes full use of this area, reducing the demand for land, but also improves generation due to the cooling effects of the surface.”
China has earned a notorious reputation for being one of the most polluted countries, so the move towards green energy is highly commendable. Huainan’s struggle to embrace solar technology is a historic as well as a symbolic one, as it looks to pierce through the coal ridden past and move towards a cleaner future.
