CIMC Raffles has completed a 100 kW bamboo-based offshore floating PV platform in Yantai, China, using engineered bamboo composites as structural materials. The company plans to scale the technology to megawatt-level projects while developing standards and additional marine applications.
Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard, a marine equipment and offshore engineering company based in Yantai, Shandong province, China, has recently completed what it claims is the world’s first bamboo-based offshore floating PV platform.
The 100 kW Jilin No. 2 platform was jointly developed by the CIMC Ocean Engineering Institute, China Forestry Group Corporation and Beijing Forestry University. It is being deployed at CIMC’s offshore solar demonstration base in Yantai, where it will supply electricity to a hydrogen, ammonia and methanol demonstration project.
The platform incorporates third-generation “bamboo-wound” tubes and Sea Bamboo Pipe, a prestressed, fiber-reinforced wood-bamboo composite designed to combine high mechanical strength with low weight and corrosion resistance. The developers said the materials are suited to offshore applications, where structures are exposed to seawater and harsh marine conditions.
