World's largest offshore solar power plant brought online in China

China has commissioned the world’s largest open-sea offshore solar power plant, a 1-gigawatt (GW) photovoltaic installation located off the coast of Dongying in Shandong province. Developed by Guohua Investment, part of the state-owned China Energy Investment Corp, the HG14 project spans 1,223 hectares of shallow coastal waters about eight kilometers from shore. It is the first gigawatt-scale fixed-pile offshore PV project, featuring 2,934 platforms anchored by 11,736 steel piles designed to withstand harsh marine conditions including strong winds, waves, tides, and seasonal sea ice. The farm uses over 2.3 million high-power 710-watt n-type bifacial solar panels tilted at 15 degrees, benefiting from cooler air and reflected sunlight to achieve 5-15% higher efficiency than comparable onshore solar plants. The project incorporates a 66-kilovolt (kV) subsea cable combined with onshore cables for high-capacity