(Bloomberg) -- Shanghai is looking to the sea for its clean energy future, mapping out a plan to build offshore solar farms near massive wind turbines, as the country’s financial hub tries to squeeze ever more renewable power out of its limited land.
The coastal megacity with an economy that rivals Belgium’s will seek bids for its first group of offshore solar panels with a combined capacity of no less than 1 gigawatt, the city government said in a notice posted on its website Monday. More projects, to be combined with large-scale energy storage, will follow in 2025, it said.
The solar farms will be built next to offshore wind turbines in coastal districts such as Jinshan and Fengxian to be able to more efficiently use existing transmission infrastructure, the government said in the notice. Just last month the central government approved a plan for the city to build 29 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, more than exists in any single country outside of China.
Offshore solar panels are nothing new China, as coastal provinces including Shandong and Jiangsu have experimented with such farms as a potential solution for land-scarce coastal areas. Still, the long-term operational effectiveness of the technology remains untested.
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