The world’s largest floating solar farm starts operating in China

Almaty. August 15. Silkroadnews – The world’s largest floating solar farm starts operating in China, China Daily reports.
“A gigantic 40-megawatt floating solar farm has started generating power in Huainan, a coal-rich city in East China's Anhui province. The farm could power about 15,000 homes a year. More than 120,000 photovoltaic panels were installed on floats covering around 86 hectares on the water surface of a coal mining subsidence area, according to the company running the project, a branch of the Sungrow Power Supply Co Ltd.”, the report said.
According to the branch deputy general director Xiao Fuqin, the floats are located 200-300m away from the bank on the subsidence area of 400 hectares, to prevent the solar farm from decreasing water level impact. He also noted there are more than 1 thousand reinforced concrete piles installed on the bed to support the floats.
The life of the farm is projected to make 25 years, thus, all the structures have been designed to resist the adverse factors, such as humidity, salt and heat.
The advantages of a floating solar farm are that, unlike a conventional solar farm, it does not occupy land resources, which are already scarce, has a beneficial effect on the environment and benefits the local development.
As Xiao Fuqin noted, the drones will be used to patrol the solar farm from the air.