The Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission released a new plan on 26 August that will lead to China’s largest city opening an allocation round by the end of this year for at least 1 GW of offshore solar energy capacity that will be co-located with offshore wind.

As reported in July, Shanghai could install 29.3 GW of offshore wind capacity, according to a plan formulated by the Municipal Development and Reform Commission and approved by China’s central government. This would enable the city to generate around 100 TWh of green electricity annually from offshore wind, enough to power half of Shanghai.

The new plan, signed by the Commission on 22 August and released on 26 August, aims to use the space offshore Shanghai as optimally as possible to generate clean power by adding solar energy to offshore wind farms.

The plan states that “[in] 2024, the first round of competitive allocation of offshore photovoltaic projects will be launched, with a scale of no less than 1 million kilowatts”.

The focus areas for offshore solar plants will be at the existing and under-construction offshore wind farms around the East China Sea Bridge, Lingang, Jinshan, and Fengxian, with plans and layouts for offshore photovoltaics to be based on the “wind and solar on the same site” approach.

The first round of competitive allocation projects will be included in Shanghai’s annual renewable energy development and construction plan as guaranteed grid-connected projects. The municipal power company will ensure grid connection and route to consumers, and investors are encouraged to configure energy storage on demand.

According to the new plan, in 2025, the remaining offshore photovoltaic projects will be competitively allocated, with a requirement for the investor to build a new energy storage system with an output of no less than 20 per cent of the installed capacity of offshore photovoltaic power generation (rated at charging and discharging time of no less than 2 hours). The new energy storage can be realised through own construction, joint construction or capacity leasing, and will be built and connected to the grid simultaneously with offshore photovoltaic power generation.