The world’s largest floating solar farm is producing energy atop a former coal mine

An old collapsed coal mine in China is being given new life as the location of the world’s largest floating solar farm.

The solar farm, which is being built in Huainan, takes the record-breaking title from another solar farm within the city that currently generates 40 megawatts. The new one will provide electricity for 94,000 homes, nearly quadrupling capacity to 150-mw.

The $151 million facility is being built atop a lake that sprang up over a collapsed coal mine. Construction began in July and is expected to be finished in May 2018.

This is not the first environmentally sustainable initiative that China has launched to curb their coal use – last month, the Asian giant announced the launch of the world’s largest carbon trading market.

“Putting a price on carbon is the right signal to send in this … blue-sky-deprived world,” said Li Shuo, senior global policy advisor at Greenpeace East Asia. “By doing so, Beijing also positions itself ahead of major industrialized countries, many of whom are still seeing climate action as a burden rather than an opportunity.