World's Largest Floating PV Power Plant Now Grid-connected
S. Himmelstein | May 22, 2017Chinese photovoltaic (PV) inverter manufacturer Sungrow announced that a 40 megawatt power project, which it calls the world’s 
The 40 MW floating PV power plant. (Source: Sungrow)largest floating PV power plant, has been grid-connected with its SG2500-MV central inverters in Huainan, China.
The facility is located in a flooded coal mining area with a water depth in the 4 to 10 meter (13 to 32 feet) range. The water is mineralized, rendering the resource useless.
Sungrow’s central inverter SG2500-MV integrates the inverter, transformer and switchgear as a turnkey station with lower transportation cost due to its 6-meter (20-foot) containerized design.
The manufacturer also supplied its SunBox PVS-8M/16M-W combiner box, customized for floating power plants, that enables their smooth operation in high humidity and salt spray environments.
It will be interesting to see how this holds up - with waves, mineralized water spray corrosion, differential wracking of array sections, controlling shock hazard to maintenance/cleaning
At some point these floaters will be built as azimuth trackers, jacking up open sky efficiency by about 15 percent compared to fixed floaters.