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Floating solar
Systems of solar cell panels installed on a structure that floats on a body of water

Floating solar, or floating photovoltaics (FPV), are solar panels mounted on plastic buoys and cables that float on bodies of water like reservoirs and quarry lakes. Compared to land-based photovoltaics, FPV can be cheaper and face fewer regulations. Their cooling on water often boosts efficiency, and specialized coatings prevent corrosion. Life cycle studies show foam-based FPV have among the shortest energy payback times and lowest greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2016, installed capacity soared from 3 GW in 2020 to 13 GW in 2022, exceeding forecasts. The U.S. has the greatest potential, with abundant suitable waters mainly in the southeast and plains. Costs are about 10-25% higher than ground systems, mainly due to anchoring, says a researcher at the NREL.

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History

American, Danish, French, Italian and Japanese nationals were the first to register patents for floating solar. In Italy the first registered patent regarding PV modules on water goes back to February 2008.19

The first floating solar installation was in Aichi, Japan, in 2007, built by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.2021

In May 2008, the Far Niente Winery in Oakville, California, installed 994 solar PV modules with a total capacity of 175 kW onto 130 pontoons and floating them on the winery's irrigation pond.2223 Several small-scale floating PV farms were built over the next seven years. The first megawatt-scale plant was commissioned in July 2013 at Okegawa, Japan.

In 2016, Kyocera developed what was then the world's largest, a 13.4 MW farm on the reservoir above Yamakura Dam in Chiba Prefecture24 using 50,000 solar panels.2526 The Huainan plant, inaugurated in May 2017 in China, occupies more than 800000 m2 on a former quarry lake, capable of producing up to 40 MW.27

Floating solar panels are rising in popularity, in particular in countries where the land occupation and environmental impact legislations are hindering the rise of renewable power generation capabilities.

Global installed capacity passed 1 GW in 2018 and reached 13 GW in 2022, mostly in Asia.28 One project developer, Baywa r.e., reported another 28 GW of planned projects.29

Floating solar panels on oceans

Salt-water resistant floating farms are also being constructed for ocean use.30 They have the potential to reduce spatial pressures on land or lakes.31 Oceans of Energy (Netherlands) developed the world's first offshore solar system in the North Sea.32 Floating solar can have positive and negative effects on the ocean environment: for instance, it can act as an artificial reef and protect small fish and other animals. On the other hand, the floating panels increase shading and their construction may disrupt seagrass and coral reef.33

Floating solar on lake reservoirs

Floating solar on Federally owned reservoirs in the United States has the potential to generate 1,476 terawatt hours annually.3435 The shading from floating solar could help mitigate evaporation from reservoirs also.36

Installation

The construction process for a floating solar project includes installing anchors and mooring lines that attach to the waterbed or shore, assembling floats and panels into rows and sections onshore, and then pulling the sections by boat to the mooring lines and secured into place.3738

Advantages

There are several reasons for this development:

  • No land occupancy: The main advantage of floating PV plants is that they do not take up any land, except the limited surfaces necessary for electric cabinet and grid connections. Their price is comparable with land based plants, but floatovoltaics provide a good way to avoid land consumption.39
  • Installation, decommissioning and maintenance: Floating PV plants are more compact than land-based plants, their management is simpler and their construction and decommissioning straightforward. The main point is that no fixed structures exist like the foundations used for a land-based plant so their installation can be totally reversible. Furthermore panels installed on water basins require less maintenance in particular when compared with installation on ground with dusty soil. As arrays are assembled at a single shore point before being moved into place, installations can be faster than ground-mounted arrays.40
  • Water conservation and water quality: Partial coverage of water basins can reduce water evaporation.41 This result depends on climate conditions and on the percentage of the covered surface. In arid climates such as parts of India this is an important advantage since about 30% of the evaporation of the covered surface is saved.42 This may be greater in Australia, and is a very useful feature if the basin is used for irrigation purposes.4344 Water conservation from FPV is substantial and can be used to protect disappearing terminal natural lakes45 and other bodies of fresh water.46 This positions FPV as a practical approach for renewable energy generation in regions facing water scarcity.47 For example, a case study of Lake Nasser, which is in a region that suffers from water poverty, found that 50% coverage would result in 61.71% or 9.07 billion m3 annual water evaporation savings.48
  • Increased panel efficiency due to cooling: the cooling effect of the water close to the PV panels leads to an energy gain that ranges from 5% to 15%.49505152 Natural cooling can be increased by a water layer on the PV modules or by submerging them, the so-called SP2 (Submerged Photovoltaic Solar Panel).53
  • Tracking: Large floating platforms can easily be rotated horizontally and vertically to enable Sun-tracking (similar to sunflowers). Moving solar arrays uses little energy and doesn't need a complex mechanical apparatus like land-based PV plants. Equipping a floating PV plant with a tracking system costs little extra while the energy gain can range from 15% to 25%.54
  • Environment control: Algal blooms, a serious problem in industrialized countries, may be reduced when greater than 40% of the surface is covered.55 Coverage of water basins reduces light just below the surface, reducing algal photosynthesis and growth. Active pollution control remains important for water management.56
  • Utilization of areas already exploited by human activity: Floating solar plants can be installed over water basins artificially created such as flooded mine pits57 or hydroelectric power plants. In this way it is possible to exploit areas already influenced by the human activity to increase the impact and yield of a given area instead of using other land.
  • Hybridization with hydroelectric power plants: Floating solar is often installed on existing hydropower.58 This allows for additional benefits and cost reductions such as using the existing transmission lines and distribution infrastructure.59 FPV provides a potentially profitable means of reducing water evaporation in the world's at-risk bodies of fresh water. Furthermore it is possible to install floating photovoltaic panels on the water basins of pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant. The hybridization of solar photovoltaic with pumped storage is beneficial in rising the capability of the two plant combined because the pumped hydroelectric plant can be used to store the high but unstable amount of electricity coming from the solar PV, making the water basin acting as a battery for the solar photovoltaic plant.60 For example, a case study of Lake Mead found that if 10% of the lake was covered with FPV, there would be enough water conserved and electricity generated to service Las Vegas and Reno combined.61 At 50% coverage, FPV would provide over 127 TWh of clean solar electricity and 633.22 million m3 of water savings, which would provide enough electricity to retire 11% of the polluting coal-fired plants in the U.S. and provide water for over five million Americans, annually.62

Disadvantages

Floating solar presents several challenges to designers:636465 66

  • Electrical safety and long-term reliability of system components: Operating on water over its entire service life, the system is required to have significantly increased corrosion resistance and long-term floatation capabilities (redundant, resilient, distributed floats), particularly when installed over salt water.
  • Waves: The floating PV system (wires, physical connections, floats, panels) needs to be able to withstand relatively higher winds (than on land) and heavy waves, particularly in off-shore or near-shore installations.
  • Maintenance complexity: Operation and maintenance activities are, as a general rule, more difficult to perform on water than on land.
  • Floating technology complexity: Floating PV panels have to be installed over floating platforms such as pontoons or floating piers. This technology was not initially developed for accommodating solar modules thus needs to be designed specifically for that purpose.
  • Anchoring technology complexity: Anchoring the floating panels is fundamental in order to avoid abrupt variation of panels position that would hinder the production. Anchoring technology is well known and established when applied to boats or other floating objects but it needs to be adapted to the usage with floating PV. Severe storms have caused floating systems to fail and anchoring systems must be developed with these risks in mind.67
  • Societal use conflicts: Covering bodies of water with floating panels may interfere with societal uses. For example, covering reservoirs used for fisheries could undermine local populations reliant on those fisheries. The impact on scenery by floating panels may lower property prices causing opposition from nearby landowners.68 One survey conducted with the local population of Oostvoornse lake, the Netherlands, demonstrated a 10% disapproval rate of short-term Floating PV projects in their community.69 These concerns included obstruction of businesses and recreational activities in the lake area. Other surveyors showed concerns of floating solar technology ruining the lake's natural beauty, and disregarding the local people's personal attachments to Oostvoornse lake.70
  • Ecological challenges: The shading of bodies of water may inhibit harmful algal blooms, but the shade of floating PV panels may cause ecological damage via inhibiting photosynthesis and altering the behavior of light-responsive fish and zooplankton. Furthermore, the emission of polarized light by PV systems can effect animals sensitive to polarized light like many insects, birds, or amphibians.71

Largest floating solar facilities

Floating photovoltaic power stations (5 MW and larger)72
PV power stationLocationCountryNominal Power73

(MWp)

YearNotes
Anhui Fuyang Southern Wind-solar-storageFuyang, AnhuiChina6502023
Wenzhou TaihanWenzhou, ZhejiangChina550202174
Chang-BinChanghuaTaiwan440757677
Dezhou DingzhuangDezhou, ShandongChina320+100 MW windpower7879
CirataPurwakarta, West JavaIndonesia1922023+1000 MW hydroelectricity 80
Three GorgesHuainan City, AnhuiChina15020198182
NTPC Ramagundam (BHEL)Peddapalli, TelanganaIndia145
Xinji HuainanXinji HuainanChina102201783
Yuanjiang YiyangYiyang, HunanChina100201984
NTPC KayamkulamKayamkulam, KeralaIndia9285
Omkareshwar Floating Solar Power ParkKhandwa, Madhya PradeshIndia90202486
Les Îlots BlandinPerthes, Haute-MarneFrance74202587
CECEPSuzhou, AnhuiChina7020198889
TengehSingapore602021909192
304 Industrial ParkPrachinburiThailand60202393
Huancheng JiningHuancheng JiningChina50201894
Da Mi ReservoirBinh Thuan provinceVietnam47.5201995
Sirindhorn DamUbon RatchathaniThailand4520219697
Hapcheon DamSouth GyeongsangSouth Korea4098
Anhui GCLChina3299
HaBonim ReservoirMa'ayan TzviIsrael312023100
NTPC Simhadri (BHEL)Vizag, Andhra PradeshIndia25
Ubol Ratana DamKhon KaenThailand242024101
NTPC Kayamkulam (BHEL)Kayamkulam, KeralaIndia22102
Former sand pit siteGrafenwörthAustria24.52023103
Qintang GuigangGuping GuangxiChina202016104
LazerHautes-AlpesFrance202023105
BurgataIsrael13.52022106
NJAW Canoe BrookMillburn, New JerseyUSA8.92022107108

See also

Further reading

floating solar oppertunities in India

References

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