Salt + light + tech = record-setting Chinese solar power station
- A massive array of panels erected at a salt farm in Tianjin is up and running, generating enough electricity for more than a million homes
- The field is also home to a thriving aquaculture business breeding shrimp
The world’s biggest combined solar power station and salt farm has been plugged into the grid in China, with a capacity to meet the electricity needs of 1½ million households, according to its operator.
State-owned China Huadian Corporation said the Huadian Tianjin Haijing power station, was connected to the grid in the northern municipality of Tianjin on Saturday.
The station comprises a vast array of solar panels erected over more than 13 square kilometres of the Changlu salt fields, one of the country’s oldest coastal salt farms.
The “salt-light complementary” system generates both electricity and salt, using double-sided solar panels that absorb direct sunlight from above as well as sunlight reflected from the water below.
China Huadian said the station had an installed capacity of 1 gigawatt and would generate 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.
The green electricity produced would help reduce carbon emissions without affecting the environment of the salt fields, according to the company.