China Three Gorges New Energy Co., Ltd., announced it is building the world’s largest floating solar installation in Huainan, Anhui province.

Source: China Three Gorges New Energy Co.According to a December 10 press release, the state-owned power company has been at work on the installation since July and expects to have the plant online in May 2018. China Three Gorges will invest around 1 billion yuan ($151 million USD) for the 150 MW project. The company expects the completed project to generate around 150 million KWh per year, saving around 53,000 tons of coal and reducing CO2 emissions by almost 200,000 tons, according to the press release.

China Three Gorges aimed to make use of an idle water surface in an area heavily dependent on coal. Huainan is considered a coal-subsident area with bodies of idle surface water and also has abundant solar energy resources, making it an ideal area for floating solar development.

Anhui province is also the site of the current largest floating solar project in existence. Earlier this year, Sungrow Power Supply Co. built a 166-panel, 40 MW installation on a lake created when a nearby mine collapsed.

Floating solar installations are becoming more common, especially in areas with limited land suitable for conventional plants. China is investing heavily in the technology because their conventional solar installations are causing grid congestion.