Floating Solar Photovoltaic Systems: Leading Professional Design, Connecting the Whole Water Surface
In the past decade, in the context of promoting the transformation of energy structure, China's PV industry has expanded from the land to the wider water area, and China has become the main global water surface floating PV market, occupying half of the global market share. On October 28, 2025, the National Energy Administration issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Integration and Development of Coal and New Energy, which promotes the construction of floating photovoltaic power stations in the coal mining subsidence areas of Chengtang and Chenghu, and the promotion and application of the integration mode of photovoltaic, aquaculture and crop cultivation. "As an important growth pole of China's photovoltaic development, the floating photovoltaic combines the innovative mode of clean energy and comprehensive utilization of water resources, and continues to be strongly supported by policies.
However, moving a PV plant from a stable land to a fluctuating water surface is far from a simple scenario shift. Water mobility, corrosivity, ecological sensitivity and complex hydro-meteorological conditions pose unprecedented challenges to the reliability, safety and environmental friendliness of the water surface floating PV system.
The calling of floating PV industry
The particularity of floating PV determines the strict requirements for the supplier's ability to test whether the enterprise has the systematic solution capabilities of interdisciplinary integration, full-cycle service, and ecological collaboration.
The first is the depth of technology integration - materials science, structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, marine engineering, ocean engineering, design simulation, environmental science and other fields of technology must be seamlessly connected to form an organic whole, and the weakness of any link may become the trigger for the failure of the entire system.
Secondly, the value creation height - faced with the strong competition of ground PV, the floating PV must achieve the value advantage of the whole life cycle through higher power generation efficiency, longer service life and lower operation and maintenance cost, which requires the enterprise to have the ultimate control over the cost and performance of each link.
The last is the breadth of ecological integration - under the increasingly strict environmental protection policy, the floating PV must go beyond the bottom line thinking of "not destroying ecology" and move towards the positive action of "promoting ecology". The design, construction and operation of the project shall be consistent with the ecological depth of the water area to realize the composite value of "PV+".
With this high standard, a batch of enterprises that can systematically solve the industry problems are naturally selected, and the market is also looking for leaders to solve the pain points of the whole chain. Sunlight Water PV is not a simple equipment supplier, but a national high-tech enterprise with the mission of "making everyone enjoy clean power" and providing customers with one-stop and full-scene water floating PV solutions from feasibility study, scheme design, supply, construction guidance to after-sales service through professional design.
Respond to the Era with Systemic Capability
The success of Sunlight Surface PV is derived from its profound insight into the nature of the industry and its ten-year focus. By the end of 2025, the global cumulative application of floating solar PV system will exceed 4.3GW, with the market share ranking the first in the world for 8 consecutive years, and over 340 projects have been launched in the world. Behind this transcript, there is a fully validated and comprehensive system of capabilities.
Systemic capability 1: Build a deep barrier with full stack technology patents
Faced with the special challenges of water environment, Sunlight Water PV has built a full stack of technical barriers from materials, products to systems. The company has applied for more than 300 patents, with core technologies covering key links such as floating body, anchoring system, inverter boosting floating platform and system operation and maintenance. HDPE food-grade raw materials are adopted for the floating body, and the reliability of the product is ensured through multiple tests such as water quality detection, floating body bending fatigue test, opposite edge and diagonal tensile test, photo-oxygen aging, moisture and heat aging, oxidation induction time, impact embrittlement temperature, environmental stress cracking resistance, RoHS, etc.
The customized anchoring system of solar water surface PV is designed in a fine way. The site is constructed according to the drawings, which is efficient and fast. It can adapt to different water depth scenes and different water level drops, realize the full scene coverage of anchoring design application. It has the design and supply experience of a large water conservancy power station project with a water depth of 100 meters. The anchoring design capacity has been tested under rigorous working conditions. In addition, Yangguang Shuishui PV also led the preparation of the first anchorage design specification for floating PV system in China's PV industry. The anchorage design method has been certified by the authority DNV, making it the first water surface floating PV anchorage design to be certified in the world.
System capability 2: reshape customer decision logic with closed-loop value creation
Sunlight water PV drives industry value evaluation from "initial investment" to "total life cycle cost of electricity (LCOE)". Its modular and standardized design greatly improves installation efficiency and significantly reduces construction cost. Reduce the line loss and improve the power generation efficiency of the system by inverter boosting the floating platform. Sunlight floating PV solution creates significant economic increment for customers by improving power generation efficiency and reducing operation and maintenance cost.
Systemic capacity 3: win social and policy trust through ecological integration practice
Sunlight water surface PV is committed to creating an eco-friendly, reliable and efficient floating PV system, integrating ecological friendliness into technology genes. This is not only the fulfillment of social responsibility, but also the strategic cornerstone for building long-term trust. sunlight surface photovoltaic power actively promotes the application of surface floating photovoltaic technology in coal mining subsidence areas. Since 2017, several megawatts of large photovoltaic power plants have been put into operation in coal mining subsidence areas in Anhui and Shandong Province. While effectively utilizing the water resources in subsidence areas and producing clean electricity, the water quality has been improved, and combined with fish farming, making it a model for comprehensive treatment of coal mining subsidence areas and rural revitalization. The environmental protection of the sunlight water surface floating PV system is widely recognized. It was successfully applied in Singapore's drinking water reservoir in 2021, with a total installed capacity of 60MW.
Systemic capability 4: realize "one water and one policy" with full scenario solution matrix
The water conditions in China are complex and changeable, so there is no "universal solution". With a deep understanding of the local market, sunlight water surface photovoltaic system has created the most complete product and scene solution matrix in the industry from the coal mining subsidence area water surface photovoltaic system, and customized the optimal solution for different water areas such as reservoirs, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, industrial pools, offshore areas, typhoon areas and extremely cold areas, truly realizing "adjusting measures to local conditions". At the same time, sunlight surface photovoltaic has also extended the successful domestic experience to the world, providing surface photovoltaic system products and services for global customers in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, America, etc.
From Chinese model to global leading
The capacity system of Sunlight surface PV is finally embodied in a number of landmark projects, forming its leading position in the industry. The technical strength of Sunlight Shuishui PV has been tested by the international market, and in this process, the global influence of Chinese brands has been enhanced. In 2021, sunwater PV will successfully enter European and American markets and supply 5MW floating power stations to France. In Thailand, Sunlight Surface PV provided floating solutions for the country's largest 58.5MW floating power station at that time. In 2023, Indonesia Ci192MW Project adopting the solar PV floating system will be connected to the grid, with a water depth of over 100 meters and becoming a world-class deep-water PV benchmark. The successful entry of these projects into European and American markets and other global markets proves the ability of their systems to meet international standards.
Create value and lead the future
Sunlight surface PV grasps the industry evolution pulse from "technical verification" to "value creation" and "ecological collaboration". Through more than 4.3GW installation practice, technical accumulation of more than 300 patents, product matrix covering the whole scene and successful delivery of major projects at home and abroad, the quality standard and value connotation of surface floating PV are continuously defined.
Currently, the floating PV is moving from "scale" to "lean". In the future, solar water surface PV will continue to take "leading professional design and connecting the whole water surface" as the value guide to provide optimal solutions for more and more complex water scenes, not only by technical definition standards, but also by value restructuring logic. Not only build a solid foundation at home, but also export solutions to the world. It not only realizes energy efficiency, but also integrates ecological and social development.
