Floating solar

The Middle East Solar Industry Association (Mesia) has reviewed the latest achievements of key PV markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in its newly published “Solar Outlook Report 2023.” The report offers an overview of developments across the PV industry, including green hydrogen, floating solar, and robotic cleaning.

Damodar Valley Corp. has secured approval to vuild 990 MW of floating solar under India’s Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks (UMREPP) scheme. It will soon launch a tender for some of this capacity.

Norway’s Inseanergy has developed floating solar tech for aquaculture projects. It recently commissioned its first commercial array – a 290 kW floater for salmon-farming specialist Bjoroya – in addition to a 160 kW installation for a cod fish farm.

Israel’s scarce land resources and lack of interconnections to neighboring countries have driven the rise of rooftop solar. Now a number of recent policy changes, mainly due to electricity reforms, are set to reinforce the decentralization trend, reports Ilias Tsagas.

Bluewater Energy Services has won a grant from the Dutch government to build a flexible floating solar demonstration project in the North Sea. The system uses flexible thin-film PV modules and flexible floaters that move with the waves.

PlasticBean, a manufacturer of recycled plastic pellets, has agreed to work with EDPR Sunseap to use 100% recycled plastic in floating PV solar projects in Indonesia, Singapore and South Korea.

Researchers have assessed the economic viability of utility-scale floating solar arrays in Europe and have determined that such projects are already cost-competitive in several southern European countries. They claim floating PV could become competitive across Europe if capital costs are reduced by 12%.

Intergia will install a floating PV system for self-consumption in the slurry pond of a pig farm in Spain. The project is aimed at studying both an expected reduction of ammonia emissions, and the long-term degradation of the PV components in the environment.

Poland has started operating one of its first floating PV arrays on an artificial reservoir. The project features 110 bifacial modules floating on a platform supplied by Spain’s Isigenere.

A Dutch offshore floating solar consortium has obtained €7.8 million ($8.07 million) to test and develop a solar platform at an offshore wind farm in the North Sea. The 500 kW pilot project is expected to wrap up testing and monitoring by the end of 2024.