floating PV

European researchers have estimated the potential of floating PV deployment at Africa’s existing hydropower reservoirs which exceed 5 MW in size, by using satellite images and hydropower reservoir data. Under the most likely scenario presented in the study, utility scale floating solar may reach a capacity of more than 20 GW by using less than 1% of the water surface area at 108 hydropower plants spread across the continent, assuming a capex of €0.40/W.

The plant is being built by Dutch developer Groenleven on a former sand extraction lake in the northern Netherlands. The company’s project manager for floating PV, Willem Biesheuvel, told pv magazine about its approach to deploying floating arrays always with a west-east orientation, which he claims ensures more stability and resistance to wind and waves.

The 14.7 MW project, developed for Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation (SPIC) Limited, relies on 37,632 390W PV panels occupies an area of 15.6 hectares.

Baywa re and Dutch researchers have evaluated the first positive effects of floating PV on the flora and fauna in water. They have also ascertained that the erosion of a lake’s banks has decreased.

Norway’s Glint Solar and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute have developed an algorithm that is able to automatically calculate wave heights and wind directions at potential locations for floating PV arrays. It considers the geometry of the water surface as well as 40 years of data on wind conditions.

Researchers at the Norwegian institute Sintef are testing a special floating structure that Equinor wants to deploy in offshore waters. The structure is built with an anchoring system that is claimed to give the installation enough freedom to cope with the waves.

Dutch floating structure specialist Solarduck has built a pilot 65 kW floating PV array that will be connected to a 10 kW electrolyzer to produce hydrogen bonded with a liquid organic hydrogen carrier. The system is relying on the company’s proprietary floating technology that resembles an offshore oil platform.

AGL Energy has revealed plans for a floating PV project at its Loy Yang power station in Victoria, Australia. The energy giant is already producing brown hydrogen for export to Japan, and has applied for a 200 MW battery at the Loy Yang site.

The Recommended Practice guide, on top of describing the most common requirements for building a floating PV array, provides a series of technical guidelines for electrical safety, anchoring and mooring issues, operation and maintenance, and specific plant design that can withstand site-specific environmental conditions.

Italy’s Saipem is planning what could be the world’s largest offshore PV plant — a 100 MW facility located off the coast of the Italian northern region of Emilia-Romagna. The project, whose approval process began two years ago, is expected to become operational by the end of 2025.