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Floating solar panels on the surface of the Hapcheon Dam in South Korea. The project can generate enough to power 20,000 homes, according to Hanwha Solutions.

Floating solar panels on the surface of the Hapcheon Dam in South Korea. The project can generate enough to power 20,000 homes, according to Hanwha Solutions.

Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
Green

Giant Floating Solar Flowers Offer Hope for Coal-Addicted Korea

With little usable land available for renewable energy projects, South Korea is building some of the world’s largest solar power farms on water.

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More than 92,000 solar panels in the shape of plum blossoms, floating on the surface of a reservoir in South Korea, offer a vision of how land-scarce developed nations can overcome local resistance to giant renewable-energy projects.  

The 17 giant flowers on the 12-mile-long reservoir in the southern county of Hapcheon are able to generate 41 megawatts, enough to power 20,000 homes, according to Hanwha Solutions Corp., which built the plant.  

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