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Float life8/1/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() If the solar panels cover too much of a water body’s surface, dissolved oxygen levels could change and water temperature will drop, which could harm aquatic life. Deeper water can increase installation costs, and the technology can't operate on fast-moving water, on the open ocean, or shorelines with large waves.Įngineers are working on other challenges. Bartle estimates floating solar costs 10-15% more than land solar initially, but owners save money in the long run. “We’re excited to see it start gaining traction in the US,” said Robert Pohlman, vice president of NJRCEV.īut higher costs up front remain a barrier. North America's largest, by comparison, is a fraction of that - 8.9 MW at the Canoe Brook Water Treatment Plant in Millburn, N.J., owned by New Jersey Resources Clean Energy Ventures, which operates utility-scale commercial as well as residential solar systems across the Northeast. The world’s largest array so far is the 320 MW Dezhou Dingzhuang Floating Solar Farm in Shandong, China. People may not know that solar panels can be placed on water, so they don’t look out for it, he said. “It’s funny, I don’t think a lot of people in Healdsburg know about it,” said David Hargreaves, a local realtor and YouTuber who lives nearby. is the 4.8 MW project in Healdsburg, California, built by Ciel & Terre. One of the biggest floating solar farms in the U.S. Limited land may have spurred some countries in Asia like Japan and Malaysia to expand floating solar, and other countries just took advantage of the steep plunge in prices for solar that has dramatically changed the economic picture for solar adoption globally.Ī report by London-based Fairfield Market Research says the region currently accounts for 73% of revenue from floating solar and “spearheads the global landscape,” but predicts that policy incentives in North America and Europe will spur significant growth. We joke that you need life jackets instead of ladders,” he said.īartle's company has launched 28 floating solar projects in the U.S. "They get to go out on the water as opposed to on a rooftop. “We hear from our installers that they like it because it’s something different,” said Chris Bartle, director of sales and marketing for floating solar company Ciel & Terre, which has built 270 projects in 30 countries. The water also keeps the panels cool, allowing them to generate more electricity than their land-mounted counterparts, which lose efficiency when they get too hot. The panels are sealed and act as a lid that brings evaporation down to nearly zero, benefiting regions like California that repeatedly experience periods of drought. The concept of floating solar is simple: attach panels onto rafts so they float on water instead of blocking off land that could be used for agriculture or buildings. ![]() Of course, they would need a mix of energy to actually provide power all hours of the day, Zeng said. Zhenzhong Zeng, a contributor on that study and associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, said in the United States, counties across Florida, Nevada, and California have the potential to generate more power than they use. In the process, they could save roughly enough water each year to fill 40 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability in March found that thousands of cities - more than 6,000 in 124 countries - could generate an amount equal to all their electricity demand using floating solar, making it a climate solution to be taken seriously. ![]()
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