PLATFORM REVIEW | Jilin No 2 – Chinese-built floating solar power structure utilises bamboo-based composite construction

A 100kW platform for offshore floating solar generation, built with bamboo-based composite structural members, entered service off Yantai in China's Shandong Province in August.

Jilin No 2 (集林二号) was jointly developed by CIMC Ocean Engineering Institute, China Forestry Group Corporation, and Beijing Forestry University. The partners have described it as the world's first offshore photovoltaic platform in the 100kW class to use bamboo.

The platform’s completion and launching ceremony took place on July 24, 2026, and installation at the CIMC Jiguang offshore photovoltaic demonstration and testing base in Yantai High-tech Zone was completed on August 1.

The platform supplies electricity to an offshore energy island demonstration project focused on hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol. That project entered commissioning on March 27, 2025, about five kilometres off Yantai's eastern shoreline. It uses offshore renewable electricity for off-grid hydrogen production and converts the hydrogen into ammonia and methanol.

Demonstrating bamboo as a viable alternative structural material

The programme aims to replace the steel frames and HDPE floats used on conventional floating solar installations.

Shandong's Department of Science and Technology cited poor ageing resistance under strong ultraviolet radiation exposure and high manufacturing emissions as problems with that combination. The material used in their place consists of bamboo reinforcement in a resin matrix.

The new platform measures 25 by 25 metres (82 by 82 feet), stands roughly three storeys high, and was built to have a design life of 25 years. It is about a third lighter than an equivalent steel-structure platform, according to a development account in China Youth Daily.

The primary structure combines third-generation bamboo-wound tubes, contributed by Zhonglin Green Carbon, with Beijing Forestry University's pre-stressed continuous-fibre-reinforced wood-bamboo composite pipe. The university said the pipe can provide buoyancy, carry equipment loads, and absorb dynamic loading from the sea.

The composite pipe has a structural layer of engineered wood-bamboo units, made by crushing and reconstituting bamboo under high temperature and pressure. This layer is wrapped in continuous-fibre winding to increase ring stiffness.

Over it sits a multi-layer protection system designed for humidity, salt spray and ultraviolet exposure, and the assembly is formed in a single integrated moulding process to secure watertightness.

The university quoted a density of one gram per cubic centimetre, a bending strength of at least 160 MPa, and tensile modulus of at least 20 GPa for the pipe. China Jushi supplied E7 high-modulus glass fibre, with a modulus above 90 GPa, for the outer layer structure.

Shandong's technology department said the bamboo-wound composite has one-ninth the density of steel and far greater tensile strength compared to HDPE.

Comparable robustness to traditional structures even with reduced overall weight

The department also reported that the platform's core components have more than three times the compressive strength of conventional cement pipes and 2.4 times the seismic performance of steel pipes. It said the platform can withstand five- to six-metre (16- to 20-foot) waves.

“The composite pipe is currently mainly suitable for sea conditions associated with typhoons up to force 14; above force 14, it requires further optimisation," Qi Chusheng, the Beijing Forestry University professor who leads the pipe team, told China Youth Daily.

"On land, this advantage is not obvious. At sea, the lighter the structure, the lower the cost, and the advantage becomes apparent.”

CIMC Raffles proposed replacing steel floating-platform structures with engineered wood or bamboo in early 2025. The first demonstrator pipe was demoulded on December 22, 2025. DN700 and DN1200 full-size pipes then underwent pilot-production verification in early 2026, Xinhua reported.

Production pipes were made at a factory in Jiangsu between April 2 and 7, 2026, before being transported to Yantai. CIMC Jiguang Marine Technology carried out final assembly there.

Jilin No 2 follows the same technical approach as Jilin No 1, a 10kW prototype installed at the Yantai base in October 2023. That platform measured seven by seven by 2.4 metres (23 by 23 by 7.9 feet) and weighed about four tonnes.

Beijing Forestry University said operating data from the platform will feed further research into long-term durability, fatigue, and adaptation to the marine environment. The partners plan a megawatt-class pilot, larger floating arrays, product certification, and standardised engineering applications.

Shandong's technology department also identified ballast-water piping for floating production, storage and offloading FPSO units as a target application. It forecasts more than CNY500 million (US$75 million) in additional output value within five years.