Solar floats!
The SolarPower Europe team were recently hosted by our members BayWa r.e. and their Dutch subsidiary Groenleven for a site visit of an Agrisolar farm and Floating Solar installation. You can read about the Agrisolar visit here.
We arrived at the Floating Solar site and were handed some very trendy life jackets (safety first), before a presentation about the site by BayWa r.e.’s Head of Project Management Floating-PV, Michele Tagliapietra.
This particular site is the second largest Floating Solar installation outside of Asia, with a capacity of 30 MW. The installation is co-located with a sand extraction site, proving that solar generation and industrial activity can co-exist on the same land.
Furthermore, this site is a shining example of how Floating Solar can have a positive effect on nature. Not only does the site not harm biodiversity, but it actually promotes it! The installation is surrounded by an array of greenery and beautiful wildflowers, while just under the surface we could see beds of clams making themselves at home on the floating structures. Another example is at their Bomhofsplas project site in Zwolle, where fish hotels promote thriving ecosystems and flocks of fish swim happily, including the resurgence of some rare species.
The glistening blue water of the lake makes an idyllic setting, while cooling the panels and increasing their efficiency.
The team were very pleased to walk out to the site on a specially installed floating bridge, and stand right next to the panels while we heard about how:
- The low and East-West oriented structures make the panels less vulnerable to harsh weather and winds
- Being able to place the panels closer together means more solar capacity installed compared to the same space on land
- The bifacial panels can pick up the light reflected off the water below, capturing even more solar energy
Floating Solar makes the perfect solution for reducing land use for renewables while also repurposing old industrial sites. Now we need regulation and support that matches ambition, in order to get more of this technology on the water.
