Under the guidance of the "double carbon" goal, China's photovoltaic industry has achieved leapfrog development. Recently, data released by the National Energy Administration show that in the first quarter of 2024, the national photovoltaic power generation was newly connected to the grid 45.74 million kilowatts, an increase of 36%. By the end of March 2024, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in the country reached 659 million kilowatts. In the first quarter of 2024, the country's photovoltaic power generation was 161.8 billion KWH, an increase of 42%.

While the photovoltaic industry is booming, it is also facing problems such as limited land resources, and the difficulty of development has increased, so offshore photovoltaic has become a new blue ocean for development. From land to sea, what are the advantages of offshore PV projects? How mature is offshore PV technology? How will offshore PV develop in the future?
In recent years, Yuhuan City, Zhejiang Province, combined with the actual situation of few land and resources in the island area, make full use of the advantages of rich resources in the sea, develop and build complementary photovoltaic power stations for fishing and light in low-depression areas, accelerate the construction of new power systems, use clean energy for daily production, promote low-carbon emission reduction, help rural revitalization, and drive the masses to increase income. The picture shows the 130 MW fish-light complementary photovoltaic power station of Huaneng in Tuoshan Village, Qinggang Town, Yuhuan City. People's picture

Offshore photovoltaic has obvious advantages

Offshore photovoltaic is a new way of Marine energy utilization and Marine resources development.

"The installation of large-scale photovoltaic systems has a significant impact on land use, requiring approximately 0.016 square kilometers of land for every 1 MW installed. China's photovoltaic industry is shifting its attention from land to the sea." Zhu Zuhao, associate researcher of the fourth Marine Ecosystem Dynamics Laboratory of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said at the 2024 offshore photovoltaic industry Development Forum.

Compared with traditional onshore photovoltaics, offshore photovoltaics have obvious advantages. Hong Shibin, an industry observer, said in an interview with China City News that offshore photovoltaic power stations are not limited by terrain, can make full use of beaches, islands, etc., effectively alleviate the shortage of land resources, and are not affected by wind, sand, rain and other bad weather, can continue to generate electricity stably. Offshore PV can also be combined with Marine economic development to promote industrial upgrading and transformation.

Zheng Lei, chief economist of Samoya Cloud Technology Group, expressed a similar view to China City Daily. Zheng Lei believes that offshore PV can be built in large beaches or shallow sea areas away from densely populated areas without occupying limited land resources. Secondly, the offshore environment has low protection requirements for photovoltaic arrays, which improves the reliability and efficiency of the system. In addition, offshore PV also has the advantages of improving the environment, developing clean energy, and promoting economic development.

Offshore photovoltaics are supported by national policies. In October 2022, The State Council issued the "Energy carbon peak carbon neutral standardization Promotion Action Plan" clearly, relying on the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base and offshore wind power base, offshore photovoltaic project construction, the establishment of standardized demonstration projects, give full play to the role of the national new energy empirical experimental platform, pay close attention to supplement and improve a number of standards, Form a sound wind power photovoltaic technical standard system.