In many cases, it saves land. We found that in all three of the sites we looked at, they were deliberately floating solar panels because they didn't have enough land space." Floating solar panels could be the next big thing in clean energy, according to popular Science on February 15.
Solar panels can be installed on roofs, on the ground, or basically anywhere else that can be fixed to the entity, the report said. Still, there is only so much physical space for solar panels. To eliminate climate change, our electricity mix will require more renewable energy systems to replace fossil fuels. Many in the solar industry are looking for new homes for solar panels -- perhaps even floating on water.
Floating solar farms have been around for more than a decade, but in the past few years solar panels that float on water have taken off. The basic idea is to mount solar panels on plastic flotsam that float on bodies of water. These floating arrays of solar cells are usually installed on man-made water bodies -- such as urban storage reservoirs, irrigation reservoirs and water treatment facilities -- to avoid interfering with plant and animal species that live in natural water bodies. The largest floating solar farm in the United States, for example, is located in a wastewater pond in California and has a generating capacity of nearly 5 megawatts.
The floating solar power industry is expected to grow significantly over the next decade, but only about 2 percent of new solar panels installed this year are floating on water, the report added.
Rebecca Hernandez, associate professor of Earth System science and ecology at the University of California, Davis, has been studying the benefits of floating solar panels and their potential environmental impact. "In many cases, it saves land," Hernandez told Popular Science online. We found that in all three of the sites we looked at, they were deliberately floating solar panels because they didn't have enough land space."
Another benefit of floating solar panels is the natural cooling effect of water, Hernandez said. Solar panels can operate more efficiently at cooler temperatures because of the evaporative cooling effect of water, Hernandez said. As liquids change into water vapor, they take heat away from surface water, making it cooler. Floating solar panels are estimated to be 15 percent more efficient than land-based solar panels.
Hernandez said the environmental impact of floating solar panels remains a mystery. She added that it was possible that plastic floaters could degrade over time and could adversely affect water bodies, but that more research was needed.
"We are studying how floating solar panels affect water quality," hernandez said. We're looking at parameters like water temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and total algae, and we're trying to look at how these floating arrays affect these important parameters."
Some floating arrays have been placed on bodies of water where animals live, such as storm-runoff ponds, the report said. Still, Hernandez has seen some animals that share their homes with floating solar panels adapt quickly. She said she saw birds fishing on floating objects and otters using them to hide.
"We could see birds diving into the water from floating objects," Hernandez said. I was worried about birds flying straight into the solar panels because they look so much like water, but it's amazing how the birds are actually adapting to this stuff."
There are plenty of other places where floating solar panels could be installed. In an ideal world, floating solar panels could be placed near a hydroelectric station, which would allow it to generate electricity from two sources. A South Korean project began testing a 41-megawatt floating solar project near a hydropower station last year.
Floating solar panels could also exist in the ocean, the report said. Sunship, a solar supplier based in Singapore, used the technology in the Gulf last year, where solar panels are relatively immune to large waves and other severe weather conditions. The open ocean environment may be too harsh for a solar array. So far, the plan seems to be working pretty well.
Floating solar panels are still a new way of generating solar power compared to the land-based ones we used to use, but they seem to have a lot of potential in areas where land is scarce or water is abundant, the report said. The more solar panels we put on the ground, on our roofs and even offshore, the less reliant we are on fossil fuels.
