China - November 21, 2024 China's first million-kilowatt level offshore PV farm connected to grid (Voice_over) China’s first million-kilowatt level offshore photovoltaic farm has been successfully connected to the national power grid, according to officials from China Energy. Located eight kilometers off the coast of Dongying City in Shandong Province, the farm covers an area of more than 1200 hectares and features five rows of photovoltaic platforms, each measuring 60 meters long, and 35 meters wide. This first batch of 300 platforms have been anchored to the ocean floor with steel piles that have been submerged 17 meters into the seabed allowing them to withstand strong winds and sea ice. All the panels in the project face south and are precisely tilted at a 15-degree angle to maximize the sunlight exposure. Plus, they’re double sided: they can capture sunlight reflected from the sea surface which boosts overall power generation by around three percent. Officials say once finished, the solar farm will have a total of 2,934 photovoltaic platforms that will generate 1.78 billion kilowatt-hours of energy and cut CO2 by an estimated 1.3 million tons. [Restriction: No access Chinese mainland]