JinkoSolar has announced the award of a 2GW order from the Guohua Investment Company for its N-type TOPCon Tiger Neo panels, half of which will be installed at a 1GW offshore solar farm, reputed to be the world’s largest such development to date.
Guohua Investment is aiming for a first pilot outing for its giant platform off the coast of Shandong, a landing point for the subsea cable that transmits generated power to the national grid.
The fixed pile-based PV system is designed with long-span steel platforms and pile-foundations that are able to withstand wildly fluctuating weather conditions. The especially rough sea conditions and high BOS costs place stringent demands on solar panels which are at the core of the entire system. In addition to high efficiency, reliability and power generation performance are the critical considerations of the unique marine environment accelerating degradation, aging and deterioration. In order to withstand the harsh conditions, encapsulation material has to be specifically developed to deliver against the committed warranty.
Since the cost of supporting an offshore platform is much higher than that for a conventional onshore mounting system scenario, the high efficiency of panels is paramount in order to maximize productivity per square meter on the limited platform space and guarantee the value and profitability of the investment.
The installation is expected to lead to more offshore PV projects in the coastal regions of East China as well as in other countries where land is at a premium and offshore solar represents an important element of strategy for renewables.
“We are delighted to have passed the rigorous testing and to be trusted by Guohua to provide our Tiger Neo panels for this milestone offshore solar farm,” commented Jinko VP Dany Qian. “Compared to land-based as well as conventional inland lake floating PV installations, offshore PV is a totally different scenario which demands different levels of testing and selection criteria. We believe that use of our panels in such challenging conditions will enable us to sharpen our expertise in offshore PV systems and, moving forward, help our clients access this new frontier for solar energy.”