South Korea’s leading energy solutions developer LG CNS said Thursday that it had completed the construction of two floating photovoltaic power plants in Otae and Jipyeong Reservoirs in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province.

The two floating solar power plants, each with 3 megawatts generating capacity, are the largest in terms of capacity of power generation.
 

The solar panels cover around 64,000 square meters of water surface -- about the size of 10 football fields -- and generate 8,600 megawatt hours per year, which can power 2,400 households.

The floating solar plant will also be able to reduce up to 3,600 tons of carbon dioxide, almost the same effect of planting 1.2 million pine trees, according to the affiliate of LG Group.

“LG CNS deployed its own advanced solutions for the floating PV power plants in Sangju and will utilize them in other environmentally friendly energy projects,” LG CNS executive vice president Kim Tae-keuk said.
 

The PV power plants fitted with self-powered wireless connection boards do not need to be connected to power lines on land, reducing costs for installation.

They also feature inverters that adopt technologies to prevent performance degradation due to humidity and ground fault.

LG CNS has been spearheading the domestic solar power energy market by leading a number of construction projects for solar power plants at home and abroad, including the solar power plants in Bulgaria and Japan.

The company plans to build more floating power plants with a combined capacity of 50 megawatts next year.

“Floating power stations are beneficial to the environment as they are less intrusive than landside plants and create shade to reduce algal blooms,” an LG CNS official explained.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)