China commissions largest floating solar farm

A new floating solar farm has gone online in China. According to the operator, China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy), it is currently the largest facility of its kind.

The Shandong Dongying Kenli Guohua HG14 Project is located off the coast of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, about 12 kilometers from the city of Dongying. It consists of over 2.3 million photovoltaic (PV) modules installed on nearly 3000 platforms. Each of these platforms is 60 meters long and 35 meters wide. According to state-owned enterprise CHN Energy, all together they occupy an area of over 12 square kilometers.

The offshore solar farm delivers a peak output of one gigawatt. It is expected to generate nearly 1.8 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. According to CHN Energy, this corresponds to about 60 percent of the electricity demand of the Kenli district.

Renewable energies are currently on the rise worldwide: in 2025, more electricity was generated from renewable than from fossil sources for the first time. The science magazine recently named the boom in renewable energies the "Breakthrough of the Year 2025".

China focuses on renewable energies

China is expanding its renewable energy capacities significantly more than all other countries in the world. In the first half of 2025 alone, wind and solar power plants with a capacity of around 264 gigawatts were built. The largest share, 212.2 gigawatts, was accounted for by solar energy -- more than double that of the first half of 2024 (102.5 gigawatts).

However, China continues to rely on fossil fuels. While coal is losing importance as an energy source in Germany, new coal-fired power plants are still being built in China, albeit on a significantly smaller scale than solar and wind power plants. In the first half of 2025, 21 gigawatts were newly installed.

The installed fossil power capacity could still increase in the coming years: China aims to reach the peak of its carbon dioxide emissions only in 2030. By 2035, as announced by President Xi Jinping, greenhouse gas emissions are to decrease by seven to ten percent. By 2060, the country aims to be climate-neutral.

(wpl)