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Solar Farm on the Ocean : The Pros and Cons of China's Largest Offshore Solar Project · How To Protect The Ocean

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China has deployed the world's largest open
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sea offshore solar panel farm. Imagine
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that. China has done this. So the first question
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is, we know how much China was investing in
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renewable energy. This kind of shows us what they've been up
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to. But also, how does that affect the ocean? Thinking
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about a panel that covers a large swath of
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the ocean, what does that do for the animals
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and the habitats that are below those solar panels?
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There are some benefits to having solar panels in the ocean, and there
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are obviously some disadvantages to having it there. And we're going
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to talk about both on this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's
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start the show. Hey
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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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I am your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with
0:56
the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a
0:59
better ocean by taking action. And today's
1:03
episode, we're going to be talking about China and how they've essentially deployed
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the largest offshore open solar
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open sea, I guess, solar farm, solar panel
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farm. It is fantastic. We're going to talk all
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about it. But before we do, I just want to let you know, if this is the first time you hear the
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Let's talk about this massive project off the coast
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of China. It's actually a one gigawatt offshore
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solar farm, the world's first and largest of its kind
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that goes right to the grid. It's China's CHN
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Energy. that has connected the solar units. The
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project sits 8 kilometers, that's 5 miles for my American friends,
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off the coast and spans an impressive 1,223 hectares or
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3,023 acres. and
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it uses about 2,900 solar platforms
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that rest on large-scale offshore steel truss foundations, each
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platform measuring 60 meters or 197 feet by 35 meters or 115 feet. So
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it's the first time in China that a
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66 kilovolt offshore cable paired with an onshore cable has
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been used for high-capacity, long-distance electricity
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transmission in the solar sector. Now, I am going to link
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this article that's
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on electric with a K, EK. to
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the show notes if you wanna know more about it. It's very technical from
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a renewable energy standpoint. But what I want to focus on
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is how is this beneficial? Why in
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the ocean? And what's it gonna do to the environment?
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Like the stuff that's underneath. And so I think that's really kind
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of a cool question to ask. So I did a little bit of research. There's
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a couple of positive environmental impacts. So on
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like about the system and everything. So the systems utilize,
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so here's some energy, efficient land use. So
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essentially these systems utilize water bodies like reservoirs, lakes,
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and oceans, reducing the need for land clearing and habitat destruction
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often associated with land-based solar farms. So that's a
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positive. It reduced evaporation. So by
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covering the water surface, these systems reduce evaporation
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rates, which can help conserve water in reservoirs and
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agricultural areas. Improved
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solar efficiency. The cooling effect of water reduces
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the temperature of solar panels, improving their efficiency compared
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to land-based systems. So that's another positive. Potential
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for dual use. So the floating solar farms can coexist with
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hydroelectric facilities, optimizing energy production and
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utilizing an existing infrastructure. Reducing algal
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blooms. So by limiting the sunlight penetrating into
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the water of the solar panels covering it, these systems can help suppress
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algal blooms, which are harmful to aquatic systems, which is true. clean
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energy generation. It is like traditional solar
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farms. These systems provide renewable energy,
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reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. So
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the big impacts here is not using land, not clearing
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really critical habitats and avoiding habitat destruction
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on land so that you can do it in the ocean. Now with that
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said is how much of the habitats are you clearing
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in the ocean? It doesn't really mention it in the article that I was
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reading. So that's one of the things that we're gonna talk about. Now let's get into, but
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like, sorry, just to continue on with the positive, reduction in algal blooms, that's
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great. Improved solar efficiency, that's obviously
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great for the functioning. Reduced evaporation, so
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reduced water evaporation, which I guess is great, but in the overall
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ocean or in a lake, a large lake, I'm
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not sure if that's going to be that much of a contribution, but anything that
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helps will help greatly. And then, of course, it
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can coexist with other hydroelectric facilities, which is great. And
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it's clean energy. It's more renewable energy that we can put in more places, which
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is wonderful. Now let's talk about some of the negative environmental impacts That's
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the impact on aquatic systems. So the shade effect of solar
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panels can alter water temperature and light penetration, potentially
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disrupting the habitat of aquatic plants and animals. Now,
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if you think about where these are going to be located,
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you wouldn't expect them to be located on seagrass habitats, near mangrove
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habitats, or on coral reefs, or salt marshes, or
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any other really important, like sponge reefs, any other
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important areas of like habitat that
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it'd be on. Hopefully it would be in areas where it's just sand, but
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it has to be enough to be offshore that people wouldn't see it because
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nobody likes seeing any kind of structure out on the ocean
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when they're looking out off the coastline or off a beach. I mean, we've seen
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a lot of examples off the coast of US, you know, near Martha's
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Vineyard, Cape Cod. People don't want to look out these very expensive
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homes that they bought and see wind farms. Or in California, on
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the opposite coast, they don't want to see wind farms off their coast where they've bought
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homes, where they've paid a high residency value,
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like high home prices, so that they can look at
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wind farms. They don't want to see that. They want to see the beauty of the ocean, the
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beauty of the coastline. So having these structures very
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close would really suck from a
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people perspective and enjoying the coastline perspective. Floating
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structures may affect fish spawning areas or migratory patterns,
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the actual physical structure. And we've seen this with
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impacts with wind farms. We've seen that that's been a huge
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worry and concern is how is it going to impact migration routes. But
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there are regulations in place, I know in the US, I
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know in Canada, where that is all avoided. Impact
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assessments are done and hopefully avoided from that area. I'm actually working
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with some people to have somebody that knows a lot about
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ocean wind. farms as well as impacts on
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the environment and demystifying a lot of the a lot of the Information
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that's out there or that rumors that may be out there So hopefully we'll
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get that on that person on soon, but we'll see
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what happens with that but this is you know, this is a structure that is
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Ideally or in concept and just when you
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look at it in the picture at electric.com you actually see
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that it covers more surface area than a wind farm would that's what
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it looks like anyway, so The materials used for these systems, like plastics and metals, could
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degrade over time, leading to microplastic or chemical contamination of
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the water. but
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it's the these are the first iterations of this on the ocean this
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can backfire and it can cause a lot of problems so making sure
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that the uh the items the solar panels the
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structures are built properly and effectively but we don't know what's
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going to happen in the ocean as it gets degraded or as the ocean heats
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up or there's you know obviously there's there's There's waves that happen
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in the ocean and lakes that can be very severe
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and it can damage the structure and that could break up
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and that could leak out some nasty chemicals or something that's made
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up of these. So you have to be careful of that. Disrupting the
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water use, disruption to water use. So floating solar farms might hinder
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recreation activities, fishing or navigation of water body.
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There's a lot of boat traffic out there. And whether it's
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recreational or commercial, These items need to be
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mapped. These hazards need to be put in place and making sure that people
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can see them in time so they don't damage their boats or run
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risk of running aground or running over these panels and sinking
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themselves. So that's obviously something that's a problem. The
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installation and maintenance risks. So the anchoring and
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cabling of these systems could disturb sediment, harm
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aquatic habitats, or pose risks to local wildlife.
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So you think about the actual installation of the physical structure
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and the pipelines that are required, the cables that are required to
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be laid down. to go to the coastline, that
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will eventually disrupt a certain part of the
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areas. We don't know how it's going to cut off certain areas. We
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don't know what it's going to do to the sediment. We don't know what it's going to do to
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any kind of fish habitat that's in the way or any kind of special
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nursery or spawning habitat that might get affected indirectly.
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Vulnerability to weather events in areas prone to storms,
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hurricanes, and flooding. These systems could be damaged, potentially
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releasing debris or pollutants into the water. You
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know, hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons, these
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are all major events that would harm these areas,
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that could destroy these areas, depending on how hard it is. There's
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a lot of engineering that could go into place that would be
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able to make these panels and make these
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structures. a bit stronger to
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say, hey, this can handle a specific hurricane, cyclone, typhoon level.
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I don't know the specifics. I'm not an engineer. But obviously, that needs
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to be taken into consideration. So speaking of
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considerations for minimizing impacts, site selection, so
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careful placement of these systems on artificial reservoirs or
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in degraded water bodies could reduce ecological impacts. Eco-friendly
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materials, so durable, non-toxic materials could minimize pollution effects
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or risks. monitoring programs, ongoing environmental monitoring,
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which I think is happening with ocean wind farms, can
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help identify and mitigate any negative effects on
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aquatic ecosystems. One thing to say about that, I
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know a lot of companies, I know oil and gas companies have worked in the private consulting
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industry before. Nobody likes to pay for monitoring, so it really comes
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down to regulations by governments to enforce that monitoring
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to be not only done and conducted, but also reported on
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so that the government can know what's happening. out there. And
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integration with other systems, so combining systems with aquaculture or
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hydroelectric projects could optimize land and use water.
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So overall, floating solar farms present
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a promising opportunity for renewable energy
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generation with careful planning and mitigation strategies to
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address potential environmental concerns. This could actually work really well. But
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there's always, as a scientist who's
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been involved in stuff like this and private consulting and seeing regulations
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and stuff, there's still a lot that needs to be put into place and
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it's iterative, right? The first iteration's never the
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best and it'll improve over time, but at
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what risk? What risk are we willing to take to the ocean,
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to lakes, to air, like artificial
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reservoirs and so forth that could impede the
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environment. Is this worth the risk? Is this what we have
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come to do? Do we understand, like, have a full capacity
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to understand the capabilities of these farms compared
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to the hindrance that it will cause to the ocean? Because it will cause impacts. There's
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no doubt. You're putting a structure, right, a mechanical structure in
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the water, in the ocean, and these are going to be large structures.
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This will impact the ocean. At what point are we going to say, yes,
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it's enough, or we need to do it? It's a lot like deep sea mining, except
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deep sea mining, we don't know the effects. Here, we can monitor the
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effects a lot easier and understand what it's going to
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do and have maybe some pilot projects. But it's a very
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interesting concept. And it's saving habitats
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on land, but at what risk on the ocean? And
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that's what I'd love to hear from you. Do you think it's worth the risk to develop these floating
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solar panel farms in the ocean? And I don't even know
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if they're actually floating. I think they're actually put down
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in shallow areas. I would like to know what you
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think you can put a comment on YouTube put a comment on
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Spotify video and YouTube videos or you can hit me
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up on Instagram at how to protect the ocean I'd love to know
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what you think of this of these floating solar farms.
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It's always interesting to hear your feedback As I start this conversation, I want you to continue
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it so that we can have a great conversation about these systems,
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this new innovation, and this new way of trying to
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get renewable energy started and started quickly. Love
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to hear your thoughts. I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of
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the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and