China builds world's largest offshore solar farm to provide power for 2.6 million people

China has built the world’s largest offshore solar farm, which will provide power for 2.6 million people.

The solar farm, developed by Guohua Investment, a unit of China Energy Investment Corp (CHN Energy), achieved full-capacity grid connection in December 2025.

Located nearly 4.9 miles off the coast of Dongying in the Shandong province, this farm spans around 1,223 hectares of shallow water.

All in all, that’s 2,934 platforms anchored by offshore steel pipes, of which there are 11,736 – so it’s a massive project all around.

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Why has this offshore solar farm been built?

We’ll have all no doubt seen images of solar farms on land, spanning across fields – but offshore solar farms are a rarer sight.

So why was the decision taken to place this one out at sea?

CHN Energy said that the offshore location improved performance, as cooler air and reflected sunlight increased the power generated.

According to data, its electricity generation efficiency is between five to 15 percent higher than the equivalent onshore solar plants.

Those are impressive numbers.

The scale of this project is also impressive.

Each of these platforms measures 196 feet in length and 114 feet in width, with the panels tilted at a 15-degree angle.

How many panels are in use? That would be 2.3 million, to be exact, all of them 710-watt n-types.

A 66kV subsea cable network carries all power generated back to the land, where a substation ramps it up to 220kV.

Once fully operational, this farm will generate around 1.78 terawatt-hours of power per year – powering the homes of roughly 2.67 million Chinese people.

“This is equivalent to saving an estimated 503,800 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3447 million tons,” CHN Energy stated in a press release.

Solar panels – the ultimate energy source for the future?

In recent years, energy sources have become something of a political hot topic.

There are many things to weigh up, not least whether or not said source can efficiently power the things that make up the fabric of our societies, from houses to cars.

Solar energy has often been offered up as an alternative to fossil fuels, and we’ve seen it being utilized more and more in recent years.

Over in India, a renewable energy park opened in India that dwarfs Paris five times over.

Tesla centers throughout Asia are using rooftop solar panels to power the production of its EVs.

But it’s not just in the present day – there’s a lot of potential applications of the technology further down the line.

The CEO of Aptera told Supercar Blondie that he anticipated solar-powered EVs would become the future of driving.

And there’s also been the proposal that solar farms could be operated from our orbit as soon as 2030.

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