Long popular in Asia, floating solar is making it’s way to the United States in a big way. Floating solar is solar panels attached to rafts floating on small bodies of water like municipal water treatment ponds. It generates cheap, renewable energy, doesn’t require any land, and helps preserve water by slowing evaporation.
Cohoes, New York, needed affordable power but didn’t have any extra land for solar or wind. It did have a 14-acre reservoir that would float enough solar panels to power all the city’s municiple buildings and street lights, saving the city over $500,000 a year.
Healdsburg, California, has a 4.8 MW (megawatt) floating solar farm on their wastewater treatment ponds. The largest U.S. floating solar farm is an 8.9 MW array at the Canoe Brook Water Treatment Plant in Millburn, New Jersey. Compare that to the 320 MW Dezhou Dingzhuang Floating Solar Farm in Shandong, China, and you see the potential for growth.
A solar panel floating on water produces more electricity than the same panel installed on land. The water keeps floating panels cooler than land-based ones, and solar panels produce more electricity when they’re cooler. Plus, water reflects sunlight back into the panel, increasing the amount of light absorbed. Flotation components add an estimated 10-15% to the installation of floating solar, but this added cost is quickly recovered by the increased performance and savings associated with not purchasing and maintaining land.
A study published March, 2023, in the journal Nature Sustainability, found that 30% solar coverage of the world’s 114,555 reservoirs would produce a massive 9.43 billion MW of electricity annually, and save 28 trillion gallons of water a year from reduced evaporation. That’s enough water to fill 40 million Olympic-sized swimming pools and power 8.94 million U.S. homes annually. The study goes on to report that 6,256 cities in 129 countries have large enough reservoirs to produce over 100% of their electricity needs, giving them the option of becoming energy self-sufficient.
Google floating solar to learn more.
