(Yicai) May 20 -- China National Nuclear Power has kicked off the construction of the country’s largest offshore solar power plant next to the company’s nuclear power station in eastern Jiangsu province.

CNNP started building the Tianwan Offshore Photovoltaic Power Station, with a total investment of CNY9.9 billion (USD1.4 billion) and total power capacity of 2- gigawatts, in Lianyungang yesterday, the Beijing-based company announced on the same day.

Designed to operate for 25 years, the Tianwan PV project is expected to generate about 2.2 billion kilowatt-hours of power every year after coming on stream, noted CNNP, which owns 90 percent of the project through two of its subsidiaries.

According to a statement released by the Lianyungang government, the Tianwan solar project will be built in a shallow sea area of about 1,876 hectares and will be able to save around 795,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 609,600 tons per year.

CNNP will also build a supporting energy storage power station with a capacity of 400,000 megawatt-hours, the largest of its kind in Jiangsu, to form a clean energy production base with the company’s neighboring Tianwan Nuclear Power Station that would have a total installed capacity of over 10 GW, CNNP pointed out.

The Tianwan Nuclear Power Station has six operational one-megawatt-scale pressurized water reactor nuclear power units and two others under construction. Once all eight reactors are operational, the nuclear power station is expected to achieve a total installed capacity of over 9 GW.

Before the Tianwan Offshore PV Power Station, China’s largest offshore solar project was one owned by Power Construction Corporation of China. The 1-GW solar plant started construction in Dongying, Shandong province, last November.

Editor: Futura Costaglione.