floating PV

Project developer Sunseap has announced plans for one of the world’s largest PV systems floating on seawater, to be built in the Johor strait which separates Singapore and Malaysia. The 5 MW system is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019.

From a little known niche just a few years ago, floating solar has quickly grown to more than 1 GW of installed capacity worldwide, and a source of great hope for the industry’s future, particularly in countries where space for solar is at a premium. pv magazine spoke with experts from leading floating PV test centers in Singapore and the Netherlands to outline the challenges still faced by floating PV as the technology moves towards major growth.

Singapore’s Economic Development Board has issued a request for information related to the potential deployment of a large-scale floating solar system to generate energy for private sector consumption.

The World Bank says floating PV has the potential for 400 GW of capacity – under conservative assumptions. The authors of a World Bank study say adding floating solar to hydropower plants improves their flexibility while increasing energy yields.

The Floating PV NV company has secured €2m for a floating solar plant on a site owned by Belgian raw material provider Sibelco. The funding is part of a €6m plan to support floating PV in Flanders.

A 47.5 MW floating solar power plant is being planned by Vietnamese hydropower producer Da Mi, a unit of Vietnamese power utility Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), at one of its water reservoirs in the south of the country. The Asian Development Bank is now considering financing the project. Meanwhile, Sharp has announced the completion of a 48 MW ground-mounted PV facility in the Eastern Asian country.

LID mitigation in mono-PERC cells is technically feasible, according to Jay Lin and Karin Krauß, who spoke during pv magazine’s Quality Roundtable in Taiwan. The country’s rapidly growing floating PV market was also addressed.

While a large floating solar power plant is being planned in Ukraine, within a huge renewable energy complex at the water reservoir Kakhovka, the Asian Development Bank has targeted Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and the Kyrgyz Republic as three countries possessing strong potential for this emerging technology.

The 17 MW installation, to be located in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, is expected to begin commercial operations in March.

Kyocera will participate in a new project in northern Japan to test how flexibly electricity suppliers can respond to fluctuations in energy supply and demand.