panels that go up and down with the tide

The solar revolution has reached the sea. What a few years ago seemed unfeasible – generating energy on salt water and with tide – is now a reality in China. The curious thing is who is leading this step: Sinopec, one of the world’s greatest oil companies.

A great project. The Chinese oil company Sinopec has announced in a press release That its subsidiary, Qingdao Refining and Chemical Company, has ended and launched the first floating photovoltaic project in China salt water to operate at an industrial scale.

The new floating solar plant is located in Qingdao, in the coastal province of Shandong, extending over 60,000 square meters of maritime surface connected directly to the sea. In addition, it will have an installed capacity of 7.5 megawatts, it is able to generate 16.7 million KWH of electricity a year.

A technical milestone. Getting a solar plant to work on the sea is not simple. To overcome these multiple challenges of the marine environment, Sinopec has had to apply technical innovations developed in collaboration with national materials and structures. Among the improvements, on the one hand, floats and supports resistant to saline fog and perclabes to extend the useful life of the structure. On the other hand, a marine anchor system has been implemented that supports level 13 winds (equivalent to a typhoon) and tide variations up to 3.5 meters. In addition, the project has available cables and panels near the surface of the water, which improves safety and facilitates maintenance, reducing operational costs.

According to PR Newswireanother of innovations is the use of solar panels that rise and fall synchronized with the tide, allowing to reduce the distance between the module and the surface of the water to only a tenth with respect to the traditional structure. This proximity improves thermal dissipation thanks to marine water, which increases efficiency between 5 % and 8 %.

This is just the beginning. The oil company does not stop here. Sinopec has announced the expansion of the project with an additional 23 MW plant, which will reinforce the generation capacity of the Energy Park in Qingdao.

This effort adds to other initiatives of the same complex, such as the first “neutral carbon” hydrogen station in the country, as well as the first hydrogen production project from seawater in an industrial plant, such as has detailed ST DAily.

A trend that grows. The Syopec movement adds to an international trend That is booming. Starting with India, which has already deployed large floating solar parks in reservoirs, such as Ramagundam. For its part, Japan has installed hundreds of small floating plants in urban lakes and reservoirs. Finally, Singapore inaugurated in 2021 one of the largest urban floating solar plants in the world, on the Tengeh reservoir.

The commitment to the sun. For more than two decades, China promoted a good part of the global oil growth. Since entry to the WTO in 2001, each section of highway built, each refinery inaugurated, each expanded city or megaproject launched added pressure on the world’s demand for crude oil. However, That trajectory begins to be invested and it seems that it will reach its demand peak in the year 2027.

Given these estimates, the great oil company is accelerating its energy transformation towards renewables. Within its great plan is the development of 10,000 photovoltaic plants by 2027, greater geothermal heating capacity in China, a large network of hydrogen stations in the world and the implementation of the first national photovoltaic green hydrogen project.

At a time when large oil companies face the challenge of reinventing themselves, Sinopec is drawing an ambitious roadmap. And if these types of projects prosper, it would not be uncommon to see more solar panels floating in the seas of the world in the coming years.

Image | Unspash

Xataka | The photovoltaic conquest knows no limits: China is filling its seas and reservoirs of solar panels, followed by India