Sear

Floating solar

Floating solar or floating photovoltaics (FPV), somet imes called floatovoltaics, is solar
panels mount ed on a st ruct ure t hat float s on a body of wat er, t ypically a reservoir or a lake.

Floating photovoltaic
The market for t his renewable energy t echnology has grown rapidly since 2016. The first 20
plant s wit h capacit ies of a few dozen kWp were built bet ween 2007 and 2013.[1] Inst alled power
reached 3 GW in 2020, wit h 10 GW predict ed by 2025.[2]

The cost s for a float ing syst em are 20-25% higher t han for ground-mount ed syst ems.[3]

Technology features

There are several reasons for t his development :

1. No land occupancy: The main advant age of float ing PV plant s is t hat t hey do not t ake up
any land, except t he limit ed surfaces necessary for elect ric cabinet and grid connect ions.
Their price is comparable wit h land based plant s, but float ovolt aics provide a good way t o
avoid land consumpt ion.[4]

2. Installation and decommissioning: Float ing PV plant s are more compact t han land-based
plant s, t heir management is simpler and t heir const ruct ion and decommissioning
st raight forward. The main point is t hat no fixed st ruct ures exist like t he foundat ions used
for a land-based plant so t heir inst allat ion can be t ot ally reversible.

3. Water conservation and water quality: Part ial coverage of wat er basins can reduce wat er
evaporat ion. This result depends on climat e condit ions and on t he percent age of t he
covered surface. In arid climat es such as part s of India t his is an import ant advant age since
about 30% of t he evaporat ion of t he covered surface is saved.[5] This may be great er in
Aust ralia, and is a very useful feat ure if t he basin is used for irrigat ion purposes.[6][7]

4. Cooling: cooling t he float ing st ruct ure is simple. Nat ural cooling can be increased by a wat er
layer on t he PV modules or by submerging t hem, t he so-called SP2 (Submerged
 Phot ovolt aic Solar Panel).[8] In t hese cases t he global PV modules efficiency rises t hanks
t o t he absence of t hermal drift , wit h a gain in energy harvest ing up t o 8-10%.

5. Tracking: Large float ing plat forms can easily be rot at ed horizont ally and vert ically t o enable
Sun-t racking (similar t o sunflowers). Moving solar arrays uses lit t le energy and doesn't need
a complex mechanical apparat us like land-based PV plant s. Equipping a float ing PV plant
wit h a t racking syst em cost s lit t le ext ra while t he energy gain can range from 15% t o
25%.[9]

6. Storage opportunity: The presence of wat er nat urally suggest s using gravit at ional energy
st orage, mainly in t he coupling wit h hydroelect ric basins. However, ot her (inefficient )
possibilit ies have been explored and in part icular compressed-air energy st orage syst ems
have been suggest ed.[10]

7. Environment control: Algal blooms, a serious problem in indust rialized count ries, may be
reduced. The part ial coverage of t he basins and t he reduct ion of light on biological fouling
just below t he surface, t oget her wit h act ive syst ems, can solve t his problem. Part ial
coverage is only a part of t he more general problem of managing a wat er basin generat ed
by and/or pollut ed by indust rial act ivit ies.[11]

8. Efficiency improvement : Many st udies claim t hat solar panels over wat er are more efficient .
The energy gain report ed range from 5% t o 15%.[12][13][14]

Float ing solar is oft en inst alled on exist ing hydropower.[15]

Challenges

Float ing solar present s several challenges t o designers:[16][17]

1. Electrical safety and long-term reliability of system components: Operat ing on wat er over it s
ent ire service life, t he syst em is required t o have significant ly increased corrosion
 resist ance and long-t erm float at ion capabilit ies (redundant , resilient , dist ribut ed float s),
part icularly when inst alled over salt wat er.

2. Waves: The float ing PV syst em (wires, physical connect ions, float s, panels) needs t o be
able t o wit hst and relat ively higher winds (t han on land) and heavy waves, part icularly in off-
shore or near-shore inst allat ions.

3. Maintenance complexity: Operat ion and maint enance act ivit ies are, as a general rule, more
difficult t o perform on wat er t han on land.

History

Installed capacity worldwide in MW[18]

American, Danish, French, It alian and Japanese nat ionals were t he first t o regist er pat ent s for
float ing solar. In It aly t he first regist ered pat ent regarding PV modules on wat er goes back t o
February 2008.[19]

The MIRARCO (Mining Innovat ion Rehabilit at ion and Applied Research Corporat ion Ont ario,
CANADA) research group quot es several solut ions t hat were put forward in 2008-2011 and 2012-
2014.[1] Most of t he inst allat ions can be classified int o t hree cat egories:

PV plant s const it ut ed by modules mount ed on pont oons

PV modules mount ed on raft s built in plast ic and galvanized st eel

PV modules mount ed on raft s, fully in plast ic.

A 45 MW combined solar and hydropower plant was inst alled in Thailand in 2021.[20] A 320 MW
facilit y opened in China in 2022.[21]

Largest floating solar facilities

Float ing phot ovolt aic power st at ions (5 MW and larger)
Nominal
Power[22]
PV power st at ion Locat ion Count ry Not es
(MWp )

Dezhou +100 MW
China 320
Dingzhuang windpower[21][23]
[23]
Three Gorges Huainan City, Anhui China 150
[23]
CECEP China 70
[23][24][25]
Tengeh Singapore 60

Sirindhorn Dam Thailand 9 +36 MW hydropower[26]

Sayreville, New [27]

USA 4.4
Jersey

References

1. Trapani, Kim; Redón Santafé, Miguel (2015). "A review of floating photovoltaic installations: 2007-2013".
Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications. 23 (4): 524–532. doi:10.1002/pip.2466 (https://d
oi.org/10.1002%2Fpip.2466) . hdl:10251/80704 (https://hdl.handle.net/10251%2F80704) .
S2CID 98460653 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:98460653) .

2. Hopson (58da34776a4bb), Christopher (2020-10-15). "Floating solar going global with 10GW more by
2025: Fitch | Recharge" (https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/floating-solar-going-global-with-10g
w-more-by-2025-fitch/2-1-894336) . Recharge | Latest renewable energy news. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
 3. Martín, José Rojo (2019-10-27). "BayWa r.e. adds to European floating solar momentum with double
project completion" (https://web.archive.org/web/20191111154854/https://www.pv-tech.org/news/bay
wa-r.e.-adds-to-european-floating-solar-momentum-with-dual-finish) . PV Tech. Archived from the
original (https://www.pv-tech.org/news/baywa-r.e.-adds-to-european-floating-solar-momentum-with-dua
l-finish) on 2019-11-11. Retrieved 2019-11-11.

4. R. Cazzaniga, M. Rosa-Clot, P. Rosa-Clot and G. M. Tina (2018). "Geographic and Technical Floating
Photovoltaic Potential". Thermal Energy Science.

5. "Do floating solar panels work better?" (http://tehelka.com/do-floating-solar-panels-work-better/) .

6. Taboada, M.E.; Cáceres, L.; Graber, T.A.; Galleguillos, H.R.; Cabeza, L.F.; Rojas, R. (2017). "Solar water
heating system and photovoltaic floating cover to reduce evaporation: Experimental results and
modeling". Renewable Energy. 105: 601–615. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2016.12.094 (https://doi.org/10.101
6%2Fj.renene.2016.12.094) . hdl:10459.1/59048 (https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1%2F59048) .
ISSN 0960-1481 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0960-1481) .

7. Hassan, M.M. and Peyrson W.L. (2016). "Evaporation mitigation by floating modular devices". Earth
and Environmental Science. 35.

8. Choi, Y.K. (2014). "A study on power generation analysis on floating PV system considering
environmental impact". Int. J. Softw. Eng. Appl. 8: 75–84.

9. R. Cazzaniga, M. Cicu, M. Rosa-Clot, P. Rosa-Clot, G. M. Tina and C. Ventura (2018). "Floating

photovoltaic plants: performance analysis and design solutions". Renewable and Sustainable Reviews.
81: 1730–1741. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.269 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.rser.2017.05.269) .

10. R. Cazzaniga, M. Cicu, M. Rosa-Clot, P. Rosa-Clot, G. M. Tina and C. Ventura (2017). "Compressed air
energy storage integrated with floating photovoltaic plant". Journal of Energy Storage. 13: 48–57.
doi:10.1016/j.est.2017.06.006 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.est.2017.06.006) . S2CID 115709382 (htt
ps://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:115709382) .

11. Trapani, K. and Millar, B. (2016). "Floating photovoltaic arrays to power mining industry: a case study
for the McFaulds lake (ring of fire)". Sustainable Energy. 35: 898–905.
12. Choi, Y.-K. and N.-H. Lee (2013). "Empirical Research on the efficiency of Floating PV systems
compared with Overland PV Systems". Conference Proceedings of CES-CUBE.

13. "Floating Solar On Pumped Hydro, Part 1: Evaporation Management Is A Bonus" (https://cleantechnica.
com/2019/12/26/floating-solar-on-pumped-hydro-part-1-evaporation-management-is-a-bonus/) .
CleanTechnica. 27 December 2019.

14. "Floating Solar On Pumped Hydro, Part 2: Better Efficiency, But More Challenging Engineering" (https://c
leantechnica.com/2019/12/26/floating-solar-on-pumped-hydro-part-2-better-efficiency-but-more-challen
ging-engineering/) . CleanTechnica. 27 December 2019.

15. World Bank Group, ESMAP, and SERIS. 2018. Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Market Report -
Executive Summary (http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/579941540407455831/Where-Sun-M
eets-Water-Floating-Solar-Market-Report-Executive-Summary) . Washington, DC: World Bank.

16. Floating Solar (PV) Systems: why they are taking off (https://sinovoltaics.com/technology/floating-sola
r-pv-systems-why-they-are-taking-off/) . By Dricus De Rooij, Aug 5 2015

17. Where Sun Meets Water, FLOATING SOLAR MARKET REPORT (https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bi
tstream/handle/10986/31880/Floating-Solar-Market-Report.pdf) . World Bank, 2019.

18. Data taken from "Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Market Report," World Bank Group and SERIS,
Singapore, 2018.

19. M. Rosa-Clot and P. Rosa-Clot (2008). "Support and method for increasing the efficiency of solar cells
by immersion". Italy Patent PI2008A000088.

20. "Thailand switches on 45MW floating solar plant, plans for 15 more" (https://reneweconomy.com.au/th
ailand-switches-on-45mw-floating-solar-plant-plans-for-15-more/) . RenewEconomy. 11 November
2021.
21. Lee, Andrew (5 January 2022). " 'Smooth operator': world's largest floating solar plant links with wind
and storage" (https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/smooth-operator-worlds-largest-floatin
g-solar-plant-links-with-wind-and-storage/2-1-1139896) . Recharge | Latest renewable energy news.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220311181115/https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transi
tion/smooth-operator-worlds-largest-floating-solar-plant-links-with-wind-and-storage/2-1-1139896)
from the original on 11 March 2022.

22. Note that nominal power may be AC or DC, depending on the plant. See AC-DC conundrum: Latest PV
power-plant ratings follies put focus on reporting inconsistency (update) (http://international.pv-tech.or
g/chip_shots_blog/ac_dc_conundrum_latest_pv_power_plant_ratings_follies_put_focus_on_reportin/)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110119074222/http://international.pv-tech.org/chip_shots_bl
og/ac_dc_conundrum_latest_pv_power_plant_ratings_follies_put_focus_on_reportin) 2011-01-19 at
the Wayback Machine

23. "5 Largest Floating Solar Farms in the World in 2022" (https://www.ysgsolar.com/blog/5-largest-floating
-solar-farms-world-2022-ysg-solar) . YSG Solar. 20 January 2022.

24. Martín, José Rojo (2019-06-06). "Singaporean water utility in push for 50MW-plus floating PV" (https://
www.pv-tech.org/news/singaporean-water-utility-in-push-for-50mw-plus-floating-pv) . PV Tech.

25. "Singapore launches large-scale floating solar farm in Tengeh Reservoir" (https://www.datacenterdynami
cs.com/en/news/singapore-launches-large-scale-floating-solar-farm-in-tengeh-reservoir/) .
www.datacenterdynamics.com. 27 July 2021. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2021080617081
7/https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/singapore-launches-large-scale-floating-solar-farm-in-
tengeh-reservoir/) from the original on 6 August 2021.

26. "Thailand's massive floating solar farm lays the foundation for its emission-free future" (https://www.zm
escience.com/science/thailand-floating-solar-farm-373756453/) . ZME Science. 10 March 2022.

27. "New Jersey outfit kicks off construction of 9MW floating solar array" (https://www.offshore-energy.biz/
new-jersey-outfit-kicks-off-construction-of-9mw-floating-solar-array/) . Offshore Energy. 4 May 2022.

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