The benefits of ‘floating’ solar power
In China and beyond, more countries are chasing the same idea: place massive solar panels on bodies of water to soak up the Sun.
Grand Ideas
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China is arguably leading the globe in solar energy production. The International Energy Agency says that the country installed two times more gigawatts of solar capacity than the US last year, and contributed almost half the total solar capacity for the planet in 2016. (They’ve even opened a panda-shaped solar plant.)
And this year, China opened the world’s largest floating solar farm.
Building Sun-sucking tech on water is an ingenious way of freeing up land. Elsewhere in the world, countries like Japan and the UK have done similar projects.
Take a look at the video to see how this grand idea could be a new standard for putting the Sun’s rays to good use.
Video by Howard Timberlake