floating PV

The 1 MWp pre-commercial demonstrator from the French company SolarinBlue will be deployed off the coast of Sète, 2 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast, and will supply the infrastructure of the port of Sète-Frontignan. The floats are designed to withstand waves of more than 10 meters and winds of 200 km/h.

The Itaipu hydroelectric power plant could almost double its generation capacity if it were to install a large floating solar plant that would occupy only 10% of its 1,350-square-kilometer reservoir area, according to an estimate released by the energy consulting and analysis firm PSR. The installation of floating PV could be an alternative to the repowering of power plants, although it faces regulatory and operational constraints.

Academics have used geospatial land-eligibility research and existing legislation to identify the potential for up to 4.7 GW of floating PV, 24.6 GW of solar parking, and 5,437 GW of agrivoltaics in Germany.

A UK-based research team has calculated the global potential of deploying floating solar arrays on almost 68,000 lakes and reservoirs. It found some countries could generate the majority of their electricity needs from floating solar panels, while five could meet all their electricity demand.

Romanian energy company TMK Hydroenergy Power has switched on the country’s first floating solar project. The facility, located on a pond in Caras Severin county, is connected to a hydropower plant.

The African Development Bank is seeking expressions of interest from consultants to carry out a feasibility study for a floating solar project at a dam in southern Zambia. The deadline for applications is June 15.

The Israeli authorities have proposed a plan to deploy 250 MW of floating solar and agrivoltaics through four PV plants in the Negev Desert near Ramon Airport.

A research group in China has tested how membrane-based floating PV platforms can operate in offgrid scenarios. Their analysis showed that, especially with high wave frequencies, this kind of floating PV installation may suffer from the floater bending stiffness, which could limit both in-plane and out-of-plane motion amplitude.

SolarDuck and Tokyu Land have installed a floating solar demonstration unit in Japan. This project is billed as the nation’s first offshore floating solar power plant on the surface of the ocean and will be used to power electric vehicles and boats.

A new report prepared under the Indo-German Technical Cooperation on Innovative Solar provides a comprehensive overview of floating solar potential in India. It also provides projections for installations from 2024 to 2040.