Hexa Renewables’ 373 MW floating solar power plant will provide enough electricity for 74,000 households in Taiwan.
Taipei-based renewable energy company Hexa Renewables installed and handed over a 373 MW solar power project in Changhua on Taiwan’s west coast. This world’s largest floating offshore solar power plant is an expansion project from the previously delivered battery cluster. The plant’s capacity is enough to provide electricity to about 74,000 households in Taiwan, Interesting Engineering reported on November 7.
The first phase of the project completed in 2020 includes two areas with a total capacity of 181 MW, developed by Chenya Energy, later part of I Squared Capital, Hexa’s investor. Hexa continues to cooperate with the Taiwanese government to complete the second phase of the project, adding 192 MW of power capacity.
According to the company, this pioneering project includes 4 areas with an area of 347 hectares. The project’s phases will produce a total of 373 MW, making it the world’s largest floating offshore solar power plant. The plant will help Taiwan move closer to its goal of reducing carbon emissions, including net zero emissions by 2050 and reaching 20 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2025. The project will help reduce emissions by 136,000 tons. CO2 annually.
Taiwan is promoting the installation of wind and solar power solutions to eliminate fossil fuels. The reduced electricity costs of such technologies are encouraging, but their slow energy conversion rate is a limitation. Wind and solar power plants both require large areas of land to produce enough electricity to create change, affecting housing construction, agricultural and industrial activities. Many wind farms have moved offshore to install larger turbines and exploit stronger wind power, however, moving solar power projects offshore is still slow.
71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, creating an opportunity to build factories that harvest energy using abundant sunlight. Offshore solar farms are very suitable for sunny areas such as the Caribbean, Japan, Korea, and Oman, which have limited land areas.