Shakunt Pandey

Floating Solar Farms
Harnessing the sun’s energy for electricity and heat generation using photovoltaic technology is moving beyond the generally conceived notion of solar panels installed on rooftops to the broader concept of land solar farms to floating solar farms, often called floatovoltaics, which actually float on top of water bodies. Floating solar farms use the technology of bundling or bolting together solar panels on special buoyant flatforms and floating them in water bodies like lakes, reservoirs, industrial ponds and even sometimes on calm coastal waters. 

The concept does have a distinct advantage, as the water of the water bodies helps in cooling the panels and keeps them free of dust, thereby making them more efficient. These floating solar farms also reduce evaporation, thereby helping in the conservation of water and reducing algae growth that affects water quality. Since they are generally put to use in underutilised water bodies, they free up land use.

The idea of this revolutionary and innovative floating solar farm was fructified in Japan. The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology built the first-ever floating solar project, albeit on a smaller scale, in Aichi, Japan, in 2007. The big floating solar plants, which could envision and bring into reality production of solar electricity on a megawatt scale, were developed by Ciel & Terre in Okegawa in 2013…read more on NOPR