Floating solar power technology: A breakthrough for energy industry (Part 1)

Due to the increasing demand for solar power generation, Solaris Synergy (Israel) experts have researched and developed a new type of light absorption panel with the ability to float on water surface.

Research conducted by the Korea Water Resources Corporation has shown that floating solar power systems have an outstanding performance over 11% of standard solar PV systems installed on the ground.

In order to save costs on the use of large silicon wafers, Solaris Synergy has broken them down and covered them with a curved, mirror-shaped film that collects light into a thin line, etc. Thus, “the surface”. The reduction in silicon devices could reduce silicon by 5%, thereby reducing the cost of this material.”

Space to place the solar panel is one of the major problems in the installation. As a result, floating solar power technology was created to increase the efficiency of energy storage on panels and to expand installation space.

With solar power, to produce 1MW only needs 1 hectare of space and can be deployed in all regions of the country – especially the use of roof-mounted panels. Unlike wind and biomass, the investment cost for solar power is not high. Besides, the application of solar power can be popular with the family, such as investing in a grid-connected solar cell with a capacity of 3-4 kW, costing only about US $ 3,500.

If the average capacity of a solar power plant is currently only in the range of 200-300 MW, then here, after 2020, 2025, this average capacity will have to thousands or more MW. As we know, due to the low density of solar energy at the maximum of only 1kWpm2, it is necessary to install a 1MW battery pack that requires an area of ​​about 1.3ha (or 13,000m²).

Thus, to be able to build solar power plants of size 1GW (1GW = 1000MW), it needs a very large ground area, 1300ha (1.3 million m²). Therefore, many countries, including our country, due to the small spectrum, high population density, it is difficult to have the space for solar power development, not to mention investment costs for with rent or buy land is also very large.

There are currently at least 100 floating solar projects in the world operating around the world, ranging in size from several kW demonstration models to large-scale projects up to 40 MW. The main countries with floating solar power projects are China (40MW), Japan with 56MW of capacity, the United Kingdom with 10MW, South Korea with 7MW, and the US with ~ 1 MW. In addition, floating solar power is also being considered and has potential for some other countries such as India, France, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, Brazil, Vietnam and Singapore.

(to be continued)

Productivity and Quality Office