The floating solar power plant in the city of Huainan in Anhui province.

The world’s largest floating photovoltaic power station has been put into use in eastern China’s Anhui province on Dec. 10, thepaper.cn reported.

The innovative project was constructed by China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) with a total investment of 1 billion RMB. Built on unused water in a mining area, the power station has an installed capacity of 150 MW.

This project commenced in July 2017 and is expected to be fully connected to the national grid in May 2018. By then, a total of 150 million kWh of clean electricity will be generated each year. The project will help cut 53,000 tons of coal consumption and 199,500 tons of carbon dioxide emission annually.

Compared with traditional solar power plants on land, the floating station will help save land resources, reduce water evaporation, and prevent algae from growing. In addition, the water is also able to cool down the cables and modules, thus improving efficiency.

However, present land systems are not compatible with floating ones. China is now focused on establishing a practical system for the maintenance of the new solar power plant.