Floating solar or floating photovoltaics (FPV), sometimes called floatovoltaics, are solar panels mounted on a structure that floats on a body of water, typically a reservoir or a lake such as drinking water reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals or remediation and tailing ponds. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The systems can have advantages over photovoltaics (PV) on land. Water surfaces may be less expensive than the cost of land, and there are fewer rules and regulations for structures built on bodies of water not used for recreation. Life cycle analysis indicates that foam-based FPV [6] have some of the shortest energy payback times (1.3 years) and the lowest greenhouse gas emissions to energy ratio (11 kg CO2 eq/MWh) in crystalline silicon solar photovoltaic technologies reported. [7]
Floating arrays can achieve higher efficiencies than PV panels on land because water cools the panels. The panels can have a special coating to prevent rust or corrosion. [8]
The market for this renewable energy technology has grown rapidly since 2016. The first 20 plants with capacities of a few dozen kWp were built between 2007 and 2013. [9] Installed power grew from 3 GW in 2020, to 13 GW in 2022, [10] surpassing a prediction of 10 GW by 2025. [11] The World Bank estimated there are 6,600 large bodies of water suitable for floating solar, with a technical capacity of over 4,000 GW if 10% of their surfaces were covered with solar panels. [10]
The costs for a floating system are about 10-20% higher than for ground-mounted systems. [12] [13] [14] According to a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), this increase is primarily due to the need for anchoring systems to secure the panels on water, which contributes to making floating solar installations about 25% more expensive than those on land. [15]
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. [17]
The first floating solar installation was in Aichi, Japan, in 2007, built by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. [9] [18]
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. [9] [19] 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 Prefecture [20] using 50,000 solar panels. [21] [22] 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. [23]
Salt-water resistant floating farms are also being constructed for ocean use. [24]
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. [10] One project developer, Baywa r.e., reported another 28 GW of planned projects. [10]
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. [14]
There are several reasons for this development:
Floating solar presents several challenges to designers: [43] [44] [45] [46]
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PV power station | Location | Country | Nominal Power [49] (MWp) | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anhui Fuyang Southern Wind-solar-storage | Fuyang, Anhui | China | 650 | 2023 | [ citation needed ] |
Wenzhou Taihan | Wenzhou, Zhejiang | China | 550 | 2021 | [50] |
Changbing | Changhua | Taiwan | 440 | [13] [51] [52] | |
Dezhou Dingzhuang | Dezhou, Shandong | China | 320 | +100 MW windpower [53] [54] | |
Cirata | Purwakarta, West Java | Indonesia | 192 | 2023 | +1000 MW hydroelectricity [55] |
Three Gorges | Huainan City, Anhui | China | 150 | 2019 | [54] [56] |
NTPC Ramagundam (BHEL) | Peddapalli, Telangana | India | 145 | ||
Xinji Huainan | Xinji Huainan | China | 102 | 2017 | [56] |
Yuanjiang Yiyang | Yiyang, Hunan | China | 100 | 2019 | [56] |
NTPC Kayamkulam | Kayamkulam, Kerala | India | 92 | [13] | |
CECEP | Suzhou, Anhui | China | 70 | 2019 | [54] [57] |
Tengeh | Singapore | 60 | 2021 | [54] [58] [59] | |
304 Industrial Park | Prachinburi | Thailand | 60 | 2023 | [60] |
Huancheng Jining | Huancheng Jining | China | 50 | 2018 | [56] |
Da Mi Reservoir | Binh Thuan province | Vietnam | 47.5 | 2019 | [61] |
Sirindhorn Dam | Ubon Ratchathani | Thailand | 45 | 2021 | [62] [63] |
Hapcheon Dam | South Gyeongsang | South Korea | 40 | [64] | |
Anhui GCL | China | 32 | [65] | ||
HaBonim Reservoir | Ma'ayan Tzvi | Israel | 31 | 2023 | [66] |
NTPC Simhadri (BHEL) | Vizag, Andhra Pradesh | India | 25 | ||
Ubol Ratana Dam | Khon Kaen | Thailand | 24 | 2024 | [67] |
NTPC Kayamkulam (BHEL) | Kayamkulam, Kerala | India | 22 | [68] | |
Former sand pit site | Grafenwörth | Austria | 24.5 | 2023 | [69] |
Qintang Guigang | Guping Guangxi | China | 20 | 2016 | [56] |
Lazer | Hautes-Alpes | France | 20 | 2023 | [70] |
Burgata | Israel | 13.5 | 2022 | [71] | |
NJAW Canoe Brook | Millburn, New Jersey | USA | 8.9 | 2022 | [72] [73] |
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy, and solar architecture. It is an essential source of renewable energy, and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power. Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power, and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially used for electricity generation and as photosensors.
Solar desalination is a desalination technique powered by solar energy. The two common methods are direct (thermal) and indirect (photovoltaic).
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. The electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct current (DC) electricity, which can be used to power various devices or be stored in batteries. Solar panels are also known as solar cell panels, solar electric panels, or PV modules.
Many countries and territories have installed significant solar power capacity into their electrical grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:
Hybrid power are combinations between different technologies to produce power.
Solar power is a major contributor to electricity supply in Australia. As of December 2023, Australia's over 3.69 million solar PV installations had a combined capacity of 34.2 GW photovoltaic (PV) solar power. In 2019, 59 solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 2,881 MW were either under construction, constructed or due to start construction having reached financial closure. Solar accounted for 12.4% of Australia's total electrical energy production in 2021.
Spain is one of the first countries to deploy large-scale solar photovoltaics, and is the world leader in concentrated solar power (CSP) production.
A solar-powered desalination unit produces potable water from saline water through direct or indirect methods of desalination powered by sunlight. Solar energy is the most promising renewable energy source due to its ability to drive the more popular thermal desalination systems directly through solar collectors and to drive physical and chemical desalination systems indirectly through photovoltaic cells.
India's solar power installed capacity was 84.28 GW AC as of 31 May 2024. India is the third largest producer of solar power globally.
Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to convert light into an electric current. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and solar tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight to a hot spot, often to drive a steam turbine.
A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to convert the output from direct to alternating current, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical accessories to set up a working system. Many utility-scale PV systems use tracking systems that follow the sun's daily path across the sky to generate more electricity than fixed-mounted systems.
Photovoltaic thermal collectors, typically abbreviated as PVT collectors and also known as hybrid solar collectors, photovoltaic thermal solar collectors, PV/T collectors or solar cogeneration systems, are power generation technologies that convert solar radiation into usable thermal and electrical energy. PVT collectors combine photovoltaic solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity, with a solar thermal collector, which transfers the otherwise unused waste heat from the PV module to a heat transfer fluid. By combining electricity and heat generation within the same component, these technologies can reach a higher overall efficiency than solar photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal (T) alone.
Turkey’s sunny climate possesses a high solar energy potential, specifically in the South Eastern Anatolia and Mediterranean regions. Solar power is a growing part of renewable energy in the country, with 14 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels generating 6% of the country's electricity. Solar thermal is also important.
Photovoltaic mounting systems are used to fix solar panels on surfaces like roofs, building facades, or the ground. These mounting systems generally enable retrofitting of solar panels on roofs or as part of the structure of the building. As the relative costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules has dropped, the costs of the racks have become more important and for small PV systems can be the most expensive material cost. This has caused an interest in small users deploying a DIY approach. Due to these trends, there has been an explosion of new racking trends. These include non-optimal orientations and tilt angles, new types of roof-mounts, ground mounts, canopies, building integrated, shading, vertical mounted and fencing systems.
Solar power is an important contributor to electricity generation in Italy, accounting for 8% of the total in 2017. As of 2022, the country has a total installed capacity of 22.56 GW. In 2019, Italy set a national goal of reaching 50 GW by 2030.
A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building-mounted and other decentralized solar power because they supply power at the utility level, rather than to a local user or users. Utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project.
Agrivoltaics is the dual use of land for solar energy production and agriculture. The technique was conceived by Adolf Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow in 1981. Agrivoltaics includes multiple methods of combining agriculture with photovoltaics, according to the agricultural activity, including plants, livestock, greenhouses, and pollinator support.
A solar-assisted heat pump (SAHP) is a machine that combines a heat pump and thermal solar panels and/or PV solar panels in a single integrated system. Typically these two technologies are used separately to produce hot water. In this system the solar thermal panel performs the function of the low temperature heat source and the heat produced is used to feed the heat pump's evaporator. The goal of this system is to get high COP and then produce energy in a more efficient and less expensive way.
Offshore solar refers to the installation of solar panels on bodies of water in the ocean, ports, bays, or estuaries. Offshore solar installations take two main forms, floating offshore solar and fixed-bottom offshore solar. Floating solar systems support solar panels on floating platforms moored to the seafloor; fixed-bottom solar systems support the panels on a rigid structure resting on the ocean floor. Offshore solar is an emerging alternative to land-based solar power deployments that provides new options for powering coastal communities and facilities with clean energy, especially in large coastal cities and island communities where land availability is severely constrained. This market has accumulated growing interest from major industry stakeholders, namely the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that offshore solar had 40x more energy potential than offshore wind. [NREL-BOEM study] Offshore solar also has promising levelized cost of energy (LCOE) potential with floating solar estimated at $54/MWh.
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