Floating Photovoltaic: Renewable Energy Beyond Fields and Rooftops
When going green is emerging as the most challenging issue in the current era, renewable energy technology has become an absolute priority to ensure environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality goals. The deployment of solar PV technology has been increasing at a rapid pace with numerous milestones achieved in recent years. Considering sufficient resource availability, substantial market potential and cost affordability, solar PV is expected to continue this rate over the next decade. In an era of low-cost renewable power generation, the triumph of the energy evolution will be strengthened by strategies to integrate high shares of variable solar PV technology into power systems at the lowest possible rate. Numerous research projects are ongoing to stimulate market growth by modernizing solar technologies at the application level, among them floating photovoltaics (FPV) are becoming a progressively competitive choice to ensure sustainable, reliable and affordable power supplies.
Why are They Interesting?
Floating photovoltaic(FPV) application is an innovative idea in solar photovoltaic (PV) applications for sustainable development related to affordable energy production without putting extra burden on land resources and particularly well suited to most of the Asian country, where land is scarce. Expectedly, the world’s largest plants are situated in Asian ecosphere namely China and Republic of Korea. Other Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore are also emphasizing on floating photovoltaic project development as it becoming a progressively competitive and economical option. The PV module technology installations with floating photovoltaic is similar to traditional ground or rooftops mounted systems, but the difference is PV modules are mounted on a floating platform made of stainless steel and plastic where these merged floating platforms are anchored to the shore. The core electrical components reside onshore, and power is transmitted from the floating photovoltaic system to the load or grid via underwater cables. Moreover, Operation and maintenance cost of Floating photovoltaic applications is relatively less compared with rooftop systems as water for cleaning is accessible at source and machineries were less likely to overheat. What are the Benefits of Floating Photovoltaics Integration? Overland solar power plants require significant amount of land where land-constrained developing countries may need to prioritize land use for agricultural, or other necessities. These application may offer alternative way to transforming potentially underused areas that can be used for revenue generating by co-locating PV systems on river, ponds and irrigation reservoir using floating platforms. Besides this application not only enlightening solar photovoltaic performance due to reduced shading effects but also tumbling rates of water evaporation and increasing water availability for other uses like agricultural irrigation system, although the amount of evaporation is directly interconnected to the size of area enclosed by the floating platform. Placing of the PV module in the middle of a body water also prevent it further from shade-causing objects. This condenses the amount of time that the PV modules are shaded and so increases the PV module’s exposure to sunbeams for higher energy yields. Moreover, better performance efficiency can be attributed due to the lower operating temperature of the floating PV, where surrounding water acts as a natural coolant. The Tengeh experiment results saw a variance in average operating temperatures of 7°C between water and land, as well as maximum variances between water and land is around 15°C. According to IRENA (2019) floating photovoltaic applications subsidizes significantly to the reduction in carbon dioxide gas emissions by 83.42 kt CO2/year, globally which illustrates FPV an eco-friendly technology with less effect on land.
Where and When Floating Photovoltaics Being Deployed?
Presently, FPV deployment are mainly considered for island freshwater water bodies. FPV deployment on salt water has supplementary technical hitches than on freshwater and desires to withstand very perplexing circumstances; these consist of increased vibration and movement caused by bigger waves and degradation to machinery affected by the high salt content. Some firms are however also developing advanced systems that can manage the demands of seawater, off-shore surroundings. A German manufacturer Det Norske Veritas has designed a hexagonal-shaped platform that displays flexibility by resisting the waves. Europe has massive prospective and demand for floating photovoltaic, particularly in the France and Netherland. For instance, today the biggest floating photovoltaic project is in China, with a capacity of 70 MW, and is situated in an anterior coal-mining region of Anhui Province. Meanwhile, another plant in eastern China (in Panji District, Huainan City) has just been linked, fetching the world’s biggest FPV plant, which will produce almost 78000-megawatt hours (MWh) in its first year. Hydropower reservoirs and other non-natural bodies of water also have vast prospective. With utility-scale grid connection already established, pairing PV with hydropower offers noteworthy added value (Walloon, M., 2019a). For instance, the Norway-based self-regulating power producer Statkraft proclaimed the construction of a 2 MW FPV plant in Albania. The company is using a groundbreaking technology comprising of a membrane-type flotation device, accommodating 500 kilowatts (kW) of PV are mounted onto unique rails, in a way that the modules will be in stable connection with a thermal membrane (planned to endure stress and solar exposure) that assembles on the water bodies.
Technology and Market Expansion
Due to its flexibility and performance benefits, the deployment of FPV is sighted worldwide growth and gratitude of its energy production potential. The market for floating photovoltaic is currently in a growth phase which encourages a lot of decision-makers to identify floating photovoltaic investment opportunities and technical perspectives in a given area. As a newly industrialized technology, FPV developers are really limited around the world with just a few manufacturers but the expansion of PV markets, combined with dropping expenses, has contributed to the appearance of new companies in the floating photovoltaic industry, such as, GEITS, Kyocera corporation, Solaris Synergy, Sharp corporation and Wuxi Subtech Power Co., LTD while some of the well-known wind turbine companies, such as Mingyang, Goldwind, and Gamesa have also entered the solar industry which is a contributing factor for this growth phase in floating photovoltaic field. The private sector leads the installations and expansions of floating PV, with the research community showing enlarged interest. Key developers in the floating PV market company entitled Ciel & Terre dominates the market with 43 FPV plants, which is 59.7% of total worldwide installation. According to Ciel & Terre, the developers have finished 69 MW installed capacity by 2016. Another 136 MW is under construction and is projected to be finished by the end of 2021, making a combined capacity of 205 MW globally. According to Credence Research, the FPV market was valued at US$ 0.16 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach US$ 1.6 billion by 2022, expanding at a joint annual growth rate (CAGR) of 113.9% from 2016 to 2022. Another market study report published by Grand View Research estimates that the global FPV market is projected to reach US$ 2.5 billion by 2025.
Are there any considerations for floating Photovoltaic?
Operations and maintenance is undoubtedly a vital aspect when it comes to corrosion, especially in more hostile coastal locations that can affect inverters, underwater cables, and other metallic subsidiary equipment. Moreover, floating PV systems consist of both electricity and water so additional consideration requisite to cable insulation and management, specifically when cables are in contact with water. Again, O&M needs to be considered to such equipment as well as the technical and commercial feasibility of the project before the system installations. Otherwise, electrical and mechanical equipment that is poorly installed and maintained could undergo calamitous failures and could cause higher engineering and construction costs later. Site selection is one of the most critical considerations because FPV presents unambiguous challenges associated with anchoring floating platforms in a place thorough considerate of water-body topography. The influence of the FPV on marine flora and fauna are another consideration related to site selection. A floating PV deployment will cause a minor drop in the temperature of the water. Such conversion may affect the aquatic wildlife both positively and negatively, even though the particular impact is reliant on the system. Each distinct site needs to be inspected by a local environmental specialist.
Going Forward
Power generation of Floating PV capacity is emerging rapidly — from 70 megawatts of peak power (MWp) in 2015 to 1,300 in 2019. Currently, there are more than 300 floating PV deployments globally. According to Wood Mackenzie, a global research firm, predicts that worldwide demand for floating PV is projected to rise by 22 percent year-over-year from 2019 through 2024. Producing renewable power through floating PV is likely to foster as an important part of the determination to address climate change. Research about the performance optimization of floating PV is nascent, but these systems have been of substantial interest currently due to entitlements of paybacks for both power sector stakeholders and water managers. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a front-runner in FPV and is eyeing to develop international deployment and research collaborations to further advance the floating PV technology and support worldwide installations. This leaves many prospective opportunities for analysis, monitoring, implementation, and technological research collaborations to ensure economical and eco-friendly solutions in the forthcoming years around the world to achieve their targets on floating PV deployment.
