Floating solar

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. A small number of such systems exist in China,France, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the United States.[1][2][3][4][5]

Floating photovoltaic on an irrigation pond

The systems are said to 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 lowest 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]

Unlike most land-based solar plants, floating arrays can be unobtrusive because they are hidden from public view. They 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]

In May 2008, the Far Niente Winery in Oakville, California, pioneered the world's first floatovoltaic system by installing 994 solar PV modules with a total capacity of 477 kW onto 130 pontoons and floating them on the winery's irrigation pond.[9] Several utility-scale floating PV farms have been built. Kyocera developed what was the world's largest, a 13.4 MW farm on the reservoir above Yamakura Dam in Chiba Prefecture[10] using 50,000 solar panels.[11][12] Salt-water resistant floating farms are also being constructed for ocean use.[13] The largest announced floatovoltaic project as of 2015 is a 350 MW power station in the Amazon region of Brazil.[14]

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.[15] Installed power reached 3 GW in 2020, with 10 GW predicted by 2025.[16]

The costs for a floating system are about 10-20% higher than for ground-mounted systems.[17][18]

Technology features

There are several reasons for this development:

  1. 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.[19]
  2. Installation and decommissioning: 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.
  3. Water conservation and water quality: Partial coverage of water basins can reduce water evaporation. 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.[20] This may be greater in Australia, and is a very useful feature if the basin is used for irrigation purposes.[21][22] Water conservation from FPV is substantial and can be used to protect disappearing terminal natural lakes[23] and other bodies of fresh water.[24]
  4. 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%.[6][25][26][27] 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).[28]
  5. 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%.[29]
  6. Environment control: Algal blooms, a serious problem in industrialized countries, may be reduced. The partial coverage of the basins and the reduction of light on biological fouling just below the surface, together with active systems, can solve this problem. Partial coverage is only a part of the more general problem of managing a water basin generated by and/or polluted by industrial activities.[30]

Floating solar is often installed on existing hydropower.[31] This allows for additional benefits and cost reductions such as using the existing transmission lines and distribution infrastructure.[32] FPV provides a potentially profitable means of reducing water evaporation in the world's at-risk bodies of fresh water. 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.[24] 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.[24]

Challenges

Floating solar presents several challenges to designers:[33][34]

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Maintenance complexity: Operation and maintenance activities are, as a general rule, more difficult to perform on water than on land.

History
Energy production from floating solar photovoltaic sources expanded dramatically in the last half of the 2010s, and is forecast to grow exponentially in the early 2020s.[35]

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.[36]

The first floating solar installation was in Aichi, Japan, in 2007.[37]

The MIRARCO (Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation Ontario, CANADA) research group quotes several solutions that were put forward in 2008-2011 and 2012-2014.[15] Most of the installations can be classified into three categories:

  • PV plants constituted by modules mounted on pontoons
  • PV modules mounted on rafts built in plastic and galvanized steel
  • PV modules mounted on rafts, fully in plastic.

Largest floating solar facilities
Floating photovoltaic power stations (5 MW and larger)
PV power station Location Country Nominal Power[38]

(MWp)

 Notes
Dezhou Dingzhuang Dezhou, Shandong China 320 +100 MW windpower[39][40]
Three Gorges Huainan City, Anhui China 150 [40][41]
NTPC Ramagundam (BHEL) Peddapalli, Telangana India 145
Xinji Huainan Xinji Huainan China 102 [41]
Yuanjiang Yiyang Yiyang, Hunan China 100 [41]
NTPC Kayamkulam (TATA POWER) Kayamkulam, Kerala India 92 [18]
Changbing Changhua Taiwan 88 [18][42]
CECEP Suzhou, Anhui China 70 [40][43]
Tengeh Singapore 60 [40][44][45]
304 Industrial Park Prachinburi Thailand 60 [46]
Huancheng Jining Huancheng Jining China 50 [41]
Sirindhorn Dam Thailand 45 [47][48]
Hapcheon Dam South Gyeongsang South Korea 40 [49]
Anhui GCL China 32 [50]
NTPC Simhadri (BHEL) Vizag, Andhra Pradesh India 25
NTPC Kayamkulam (BHEL) Kayamkulam, Kerala India 22 [51]
Former sand pit site Grafenwörth Austria 24.5 [52]
Qintang Guigang Guping Guangxi China 20 [41]
NJAW Canoe Brook Millburn, New Jersey USA 8.9 [53][54]

Underwater solar

In addition to conventional FPV there are also a number of studies that have looked at underwater FPV systems called submerged PV.[55] Due to losses from solar flux being absorbed by the water underwater photovoltaic systems tend to be encouraged for low power applications like sensing.[56] The efficiency limits for conventional crystalline silicon solar cells indicate that higher bandgap PV materials would be more appropriate for submerged PV.[57] Although the light intensity under water decreases with an increase in depths, the rate of decrease in power output for both dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and amorphous silicon-based thin film solar cells both outperform conventional traditional monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon PV by more than 20–25%.[58] Applications includes:[56]

See also

References
  1. "Kyocera, partners announce construction of the world's largest floating solar PV Plant in Hyogo prefecture, Japan". SolarServer.com. 4 September 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  2. "Running Out of Precious Land? Floating Solar PV Systems May Be a Solution". EnergyWorld.com. 7 November 2013. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  3. "Vikram Solar commissions India's first floating PV plant". SolarServer.com. 13 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2 March 2015.
  4. "Sunflower Floating Solar Power Plant In Korea". CleanTechnica. 21 December 2014. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  5. "Short Of Land, Singapore Opts For Floating Solar Power Systems". CleanTechnica. 5 May 2014. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  6. Mayville, Pierce; Patil, Neha Vijay; Pearce, Joshua M. (2020-12-01). "Distributed manufacturing of after market flexible floating photovoltaic modules". Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments. 42: 100830. doi:10.1016/j.seta.2020.100830. ISSN 2213-1388. S2CID 225132653.
  7. Hayibo, Koami Soulemane; Mayville, Pierce; Pearce, Joshua M. (2022-03-01). "The greenest solar power? Life cycle assessment of foam-based flexible floatovoltaics". Sustainable Energy & Fuels. 6 (5): 1398–1413. doi:10.1039/D1SE01823J. ISSN 2398-4902. S2CID 246498822.
  8. Goode, Erica (2016-05-20). "New Solar Plants Generate Floating Green Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
  9. "Winery goes solar with Floatovoltaics". SFGate. 29 May 2008. Archived from the original on 7 May 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
  10. "Yamakura Dam in Chiba Prefecture". The Japan Dam Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  11. Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing to Develop 13.4MW Floating Solar Power Plant on Reservoir in Chiba Prefecture, Japan Archived 25 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Kyocera, 22 December 2014
  12. New Solar Plants Generate Floating Green Power Archived 28 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine NYT 20 May 2016
  13. Solar Panels Floating on Water Could Power Japan's Homes Archived 11 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, National Geographic, Bryan Lufkin, 16 January 2015
  14. Upadhyay, Anand (6 April 2015). "Brazil Announces Huge 350 MW Floating Solar Power Plant". CleanTechnica.com. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  15. 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. hdl:10251/80704. S2CID 98460653.
  16. Hopson (58da34776a4bb), Christopher (2020-10-15). "Floating solar going global with 10GW more by 2025: Fitch | Recharge". Recharge | Latest renewable energy news. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
  17. Martín, José Rojo (2019-10-27). "BayWa r.e. adds to European floating solar momentum with double project completion". PV Tech. Archived from the original on 2019-11-11. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
  18. "Long popular in Asia, floating solar catches on in US". AP NEWS. 2023-05-10. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  19. R. Cazzaniga, M. Rosa-Clot, P. Rosa-Clot and G. M. Tina (2018). "Geographic and Technical Floating Photovoltaic Potential". Thermal Energy Science.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. "Do floating solar panels work better?".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. 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. hdl:10459.1/59048. ISSN 0960-1481.
  22. Hassan, M.M. and Peyrson W.L. (2016). "Evaporation mitigation by floating modular devices". Earth and Environmental Science. 35.
  23. Hayibo, Koami Soulemane; Pearce, Joshua M. (2022-04-01). "Foam-based floatovoltaics: A potential solution to disappearing terminal natural lakes". Renewable Energy. 188: 859–872. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2022.02.085. ISSN 0960-1481. S2CID 247115738.
  24. Hayibo, Koami Soulemane; Mayville, Pierce; Kailey, Ravneet Kaur; Pearce, Joshua M. (January 2020). "Water Conservation Potential of Self-Funded Foam-Based Flexible Surface-Mounted Floatovoltaics". Energies. 13 (23): 6285. doi:10.3390/en13236285. ISSN 1996-1073.
  25. 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.
  26. "Floating Solar On Pumped Hydro, Part 1: Evaporation Management Is A Bonus". CleanTechnica. 27 December 2019.
  27. "Floating Solar On Pumped Hydro, Part 2: Better Efficiency, But More Challenging Engineering". CleanTechnica. 27 December 2019.
  28. 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.
  29. 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.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. 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.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  31. World Bank Group, ESMAP, and SERIS. 2018. Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Market Report - Executive Summary. Washington, DC: World Bank.
  32. Rauf, Huzaifa; Gull, Muhammad Shuzub; Arshad, Naveed (2019-02-01). "Integrating Floating Solar PV with Hydroelectric Power Plant: Analysis of Ghazi Barotha Reservoir in Pakistan". Energy Procedia. Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions. 158: 816–821. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2019.01.214. ISSN 1876-6102. S2CID 115606663.
  33. Floating Solar (PV) Systems: why they are taking off. By Dricus De Rooij, Aug 5 2015
  34. Where Sun Meets Water, FLOATING SOLAR MARKET REPORT. World Bank, 2019.
  35. Cazzaniga, Raniero; Rosa-Clot, Marco (1 May 2021). "The booming of floating PV". Solar Energy. 219: 3–10. Bibcode:2021SoEn..219....3C. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2020.09.057. S2CID 225126249.
  36. M. Rosa-Clot and P. Rosa-Clot (2008). "Support and method for increasing the efficiency of solar cells by immersion". Italy Patent PI2008A000088.
  37. "Inside the world's largest dam-based floating solar power project - Future Power Technology Magazine | Issue 131 | February 2021". power.nridigital.com. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
  38. 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) Archived 2011-01-19 at the Wayback Machine
  39. Lee, Andrew (5 January 2022). "'Smooth operator': world's largest floating solar plant links with wind and storage". Recharge | Latest renewable energy news. Archived from the original on 11 March 2022.
  40. "5 Largest Floating Solar Farms in the World in 2022". YSG Solar. 20 January 2022.
  41. "Floating PV System - Commercial solar photovoltaic installers". en.sungrowpower.com. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
  42. "Changbing, TAIWAN". Ciel et Terre. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  43. "Anhui CECEP, CHINA". Ciel et Terre. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  44. Martín, José Rojo (2019-06-06). "Singaporean water utility in push for 50MW-plus floating PV". PV Tech.
  45. "Singapore launches large-scale floating solar farm in Tengeh Reservoir". www.datacenterdynamics.com. 27 July 2021. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021.
  46. Garanovic, Amir (2023-05-08). "Multi-megawatt floating solar farm comes online in Thailand". Offshore Energy. Retrieved 2023-05-11.
  47. "Thailand switches on 45MW floating solar plant, plans for 15 more". RenewEconomy. 11 November 2021.
  48. "Thailand's massive floating solar farm lays the foundation for its emission-free future". ZME Science. 10 March 2022.
  49. "Giant Floating Solar Flowers Offer Hope for Coal-Addicted Korea". Bloomberg.com. 2022-02-28. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
  50. "Anhui GCL, CHINA". Ciel et Terre. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  51. "NTPC Kayamkulam, India". Ciel et Terre. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  52. Garanovic, Amir (2023-02-21). "BayWa r.e. builds largest floating solar plant in Central Europe". Offshore Energy. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  53. "16,510 – Number of the Day". NJ Spotlight News.
  54. "Canoe Brook, USA". Ciel et Terre. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  55. Rosa-Clot, Marco; Tina, Giuseppe Marco (2018-01-01), Rosa-Clot, Marco; Tina, Giuseppe Marco (eds.), "Chapter 4 - Submerged PV Systems", Submerged and Floating Photovoltaic Systems, Academic Press, pp. 65–87, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-812149-8.00004-1, ISBN 978-0-12-812149-8, retrieved 2023-03-01
  56. Ajitha, A.; Kumar, Nallapaneni Manoj; Jiang, X. X.; Reddy, Guduru Ramakrishna; Jayakumar, Arunkumar; Praveen, Kadapalla; Anil Kumar, T. (2019-12-01). "Underwater performance of thin-film photovoltaic module immersed in shallow and deep waters along with possible applications". Results in Physics. 15: 102768. doi:10.1016/j.rinp.2019.102768. ISSN 2211-3797. S2CID 210271214.
  57. Röhr, Jason A.; Lipton, Jason; Kong, Jaemin; Maclean, Stephen A.; Taylor, André D. (2020-04-15). "Efficiency Limits of Underwater Solar Cells". Joule. 4 (4): 840–849. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2020.02.005. ISSN 2542-4351. S2CID 216440563.
  58. Enaganti, Prasanth K.; Soman, Suraj; Devan, Sabu S.; Pradhan, Sourava Chandra; Srivastava, Alok Kumar; Pearce, Joshua M.; Goel, Sanket (2022). "Dye‐sensitized solar cells as promising candidates for underwater photovoltaic applications". Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications. 30 (6): 632–639. doi:10.1002/pip.3535. ISSN 1062-7995. S2CID 248396352.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.