floating PV

A team of researchers in Canada has developed the Jericho Open Resistive Data Logger—an open-access photovoltaic (PV) monitoring platform that integrates data acquisition and processing hardware, a software framework, and a comprehensive sensor array. Designed primarily for agrivoltaic applications, the system has a total estimated cost of around $2,000.

Project contractor United Renewable Energy Engineering says 10 MW of the 192 MW site was preventatively shut down during the incident, which around 30 meters of cable line being damaged. The fire was brought under control within an hour, with the company anticipating no lasting damage to the surrounding area.

Scientists in the United Kingdom have developed a new web-inspired concept for floating PV farms, modeled after spider webs. The system is said to be particularly suitable for spiral and radial configurations, as well as for deployment between offshore wind farms.

The new Fusio floating structure features a triangular design and is said to be particularly suited to markets such as India and Southeast Asia. Tilt angles can be configured at either 5° or 12°.

Sinn Power has deployed a 1.8 MW vertical solar array on a quarry lake in the Bavarian municipality of Gilching. The company highlights the ecological benefits of the vertical system configuration and, perhaps surprisingly, its high resistance to storms.

Portugal-based Chemitek Solar is developing biodegradable cleaning and anti-soiling products for PV panels that share land use with agricultural production.

Researchers have tested a 9 x 11 floating box array for offshore photovoltaics in a large wave flume, under regular and irregular wave sequences. They have placed wireless gyroscopes on three of the boxes, representing the front, middle, and rear positions.

Scientists in China have investigated the hydrodynamic performance of a novel modular floating photovoltaic system. They did so using a novel hybrid approach, which integrates viscous-flow effects from computational fluid dynamics into a potential-flow solver. They analyzed the new system with varying numbers of panels, either in a single chain or a parallel configuration.

Scientists at Italy’s University of Cagliari explored the integration of a water electrolyzer with a floating PV-pumped hydro energy storage system. They found that under high curtailment conditions, hydrogen production helped to stabilize system efficiency and lower the levelized cost of electricity when compared to a system without the electrolyzer.

Scientists in Malaysia have conducted a techno-economic-environmental study of a green fueling system for a ferry that runs between islands in their home country. Using 40,000 solar panels, they were able to power two round trips round-trips per day. Annual CO₂ reduction was measured at 23.75 million kg.