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China's first MW-level offshore PV farm successfully connected to grid

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China's first MW-level offshore PV farm successfully connected to grid

2024-11-13 15:13 Last Updated At:17:27

China’s first million-kilowatt level offshore photovoltaic project was successfully connected to the national power grid, according to China Energy on Wednesday.

Located in the offshore area eight kilometers from Dongying City of Shandong Province, the one-million-kilowatt offshore photovoltaic project has seen the completion of the first 300 photovoltaic platforms, arranged in five rows extending towards the deep sea. Each platform measures 60 meters in length and 35 meters in width, equivalent to the size of five standard basketball courts. The entire project will require the installation of 2,934 such photovoltaic platforms.

This project is currently the largest open-sea offshore photovoltaic project in China, covering an area of approximately 1,223 hectares. It is the first project to apply 66-kilovolt undersea cables and long-distance land cables to offer greater transmission capacity at lower costs.

"Once fully connected to the grid, the annual power generation is estimated to reach 1.78 billion kilowatt-hours, roughly meeting the annual electricity consumption of 2.67 million urban residents in China, saving approximately 503,800 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.347 million tons," said Wang Lin, project manager of Shandong Kenli Project.

In contrast to traditional land-based photovoltaic farms where solar panels are typically assembled on-site, offshore photovoltaic farms require a unique approach. The initial assembly phase for offshore installations begins on land. Here, workers meticulously assemble both the solar panels and their supporting structures before transporting the entire unit to the site using tugboats. Once on location, the solar panels are then carefully lifted and mounted onto four pre-installed steel piles, ensuring the stability and functionality of the offshore photovoltaic array.

While only two meters of the steel piles are above the water surface, approximately 23 meters are submerged below, with 17 meters anchored into the seabed. The piles are coated with a special anti-corrosion primer, ensuring a lifespan of over 30 years. Moreover, the platform can withstand strong winds and sea ice as thick as 25 centimeters.

All the photovoltaic panels in this project face south, with a precisely calibrated tilt angle of 15 degrees. This angle maximizes the panels' exposure to sunlight. These double-sided panels not only capture direct sunlight from above but also utilize light reflected from the sea surface. This design enhances the power generation of each panel by around three percent.

China's first MW-level offshore PV farm successfully connected to grid

China's first MW-level offshore PV farm successfully connected to grid

China's first MW-level offshore PV farm successfully connected to grid

China's first MW-level offshore PV farm successfully connected to grid

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Chinese FM meets with Harvard professor Allison in Germany's Munich

2025-02-15 13:17 Last Updated At:14:07

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday met with Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard University, on the sidelines of the ongoing Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said that as the world today is witnessing transformation and turbulence, and changes unseen in a century are unfolding at a faster pace, China must maintain firm strategic resolve, remain fully committed to managing its own affairs well, and vigorously advance Chinese modernization.

Wang further said that China should take on the responsibilities and obligations as a major country, continue to inject greater certainty into the world, and play a constructive role in promoting global peace and stability.

He said China will work with like-minded countries to jointly uphold the basic norms governing international relations based on the UN Charter, push for democracy in international relations, and advocate an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.

On China-U.S. relations, Wang reiterated that China's policy toward the United States has remained consistent and stable, and China will continue to deal with the the evolution and development of China-U.S. relations and push for healthy and stable development of bilateral ties with the guidance of the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation put forward by President Xi Jinping.

In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) after his meeting with Wang, Allison said he was "cautiously optimistic" about U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks on forging a successful relationship with China, but hoping that China will play a constructive role in resolving the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. "I'm optimistic, cautiously optimistic about the Trump administration, about President Trump himself and the relationship with China. If you look and see all the things he said during the campaign, he has a very different conception of China and the U.S. relationship with China. So I'm hopeful that even in the not too distant future, we'll see China as a participant in what will ultimately be a peace agreement of some sort that will bring an end to the war in Ukraine," Allison said.

Chinese FM meets with Harvard professor Allison in Germany's Munich

Chinese FM meets with Harvard professor Allison in Germany's Munich

Chinese FM meets with Harvard professor Allison in Germany's Munich

Chinese FM meets with Harvard professor Allison in Germany's Munich

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