Fun with Floating Solar Panels

Floating solar panels have been in use for years in Europe and Asia. Corporations and governments in these parts of the world have equipped floating platforms with PV panels to increase clean energy-generating opportunities without using valuable land space.

Another example is Indonesia, which was noted by the International Energy Agency in 2022. Indonesia hosted a 145-megawatt floating solar power plant on the Cirata reservoir. By 2025, Indonesia plans to develop another 60 floating arrays.

Nonetheless, energy planners in the United States are also embracing the floating solar trend.

A study published in the Nature Sustainability journal stated that placing floating solar panels on global reservoirs can create enough clean energy to power thousands of cities.

What Are Floating Solar Panels, and How Do They Work?

Floating solar panel systems, also known as floatovoltaics or photovoltaic systems, are solar panels that float on the waters of reservoirs, lakes, dams, and rivers.

Where conditions allow, PV modules can also be mounted on platforms that float on the seas and oceans. However, the panels are mostly found on lakes and dams, which tend to be calmer than oceans.

Floating solar panels are attached to rafts, so they float on water instead of taking up land that could be utilized for construction and agricultural activities. They’re anchored to the bottom of the water body by cables, which send electricity to a transmission tower.

Progress of Floating Solar Panels in the USA

Here are some highlights on the progress of floating solar panels in the USA:

• The Sayreville system, with a capacity of 4.4 megawatts, went live in 2019. It’s said to be the largest floating solar array of its kind in North America.
• The US Department of Defense leaked a plan to install floating solar panels on Big Muddy Lake at Fort Bragg in North Carolina in 2020. The installation was completed in 2022.
• In May 2022, the energy provider New Jersey Resources began work on a floating solar array at a water supply reservoir owned by New Jersey American Water Company in Short Hills. The floating array, which upstaged Sayreville’s system with a capacity of 8.9 megawatts, was completed in June 2023.

According to NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the clean power generated by the 8.9-megawatt solar facility is enough to provide 95% of the power needed by the New Jersey American Water’s Canoe Brook Water treatment plant. The treatment plan, which serves 84,000 customers, produces 14 million gallons of drinking water each day.

NJR Clean Energy Ventures also anticipates that the 16,510 floating solar panels in the array will conserve water by preventing evaporation.

Benefits of Floating Solar Panels

According to iScience, floating solar panels or floating solar arrays offer the following benefits:

• They don’t disrupt habitable land and productive areas.
• They can be deployed in degraded environments.
• They reduce land-use conflicts.
• They save water by preventing evaporation.
• They can be easily installed on different water bodies, including drinking water reservoirs.
• They improve water security in arid regions.
• They can be utilized on existing hydropower reservoirs, reducing the demand for new hydropower dams in the future.

Challenges Facing the Installation of Floating Solar Panel Systems

Water bodies are undeniably alluring to solar developers looking for a large, flat, shade-free, unoccupied space.

However, solar developers face several challenges related to waterborne arrays.

For instance, waterborne arrays must be anchored to something, unlike a standard ground-mounted array. Furthermore, the moorings must account for any variations in water level.

Depending on the location, solar developers must additionally consider adverse weather conditions such as:

• Choppy water
• Ice
• Snow

Other considerations include:

• The possibility of corrosion
• Complications with repair and maintenance
• Issues with shoreline access

Conclusion

According to Robert Pohlman, Vice President of NJR Clean Energy Ventures, “Floating solar technology creates new opportunities for underutilized bodies of water, allowing space that would otherwise sit vacant to enable large-scale renewable energy generation, which helps to bring the benefits of clean energy to even more customers.”

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