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The Potential of Floating Solar Panels to Power 100 Million Homes
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Posted by Okachinepa on 01/17/2025 @


Courtesy of SynEvol
Credit: U.S De;partment of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory
According to a recent study published in Solar Energy, federal reservoirs have a great deal of potential to help meet the country's solar energy needs.
The first thorough analysis of the potential energy output of putting floating solar panel systems on federally owned or regulated reservoirs was carried out by geospatial scientists Evan Rosenlieb and Marie Rivers, as well as Aaron Levine, a senior legal and regulatory analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The AquaPV website provides developers with detailed information about each reservoir.
According to the findings, there is a huge potential for these lakes to hold enough floating solar panels to provide up to 1,476 terawatt-hours of electricity yearly, which is enough to light about 100 million households.
The maximum quantity of energy that might be produced if each reservoir contained as many floating solar panels as possible is known as "technical potential," according to Rosenlieb. "We are aware that we cannot develop all of this. However, it would be quite beneficial even if you could develop 10% of what we found.
Levine and Rosenlieb have not yet taken into account the potential effects of wildlife and human activity on the development of floating solar energy on particular reservoirs. However, they intend to overcome this constraint in subsequent research.
This study offers much more precise information about the possibility of floating solar electricity in the US. Additionally, such precision may make it easier for developers to plan projects on U.S. reservoirs and for researchers to evaluate how these technologies align with the nation's larger energy objectives.
The advantages of floating solar panels, or floating PV, are numerous. These buoyed power plants not only produce electricity but also do so without vying for scarce land. Additionally, they chill and shade water bodies, reducing evaporation and conserving precious water resources.
However, Levine stated, "we haven't seen any large-scale installations, like at a large reservoir." "There isn't a single project in the US that is larger than 10 megawatts."
Prior research has attempted to estimate the amount of electricity that the nation could produce using floating solar panels. However, Levine and Rosenlieb are the first to think about which water sources are suitable for these kind of power plants.
For instance, maritime activity creates wakes in some reservoirs that may harm the float infrastructure or mooring lines. Others have sloping bottoms that are too steep, are too chilly, or are too shallow to hold solar panels in place.
However, some hydropower reservoirs might make perfect sites for solar power facilities that float. The power grid may get more dependable and robust electricity from a hybrid energy system that uses both hydropower and solar energy. For instance, solar panels could produce electricity while a hydropower facility pauses to allow the water to replenish if a drought depletes the reservoir.
Additionally, some developers construct completely new bodies of water in order to construct new pumped storage hydropower plants, which move water from one reservoir to another at a higher elevation in order to store and produce energy as needed. Neither humans nor animals rely on these new reservoirs for recreation, habitat, or food (at least not yet), and they are not connected to naturally flowing rivers.
Future research will examine which sites are near transmission lines or power demand, the potential costs of development at particular places, if a site should be avoided to preserve the local environment, and how developers might comply with local, state, and federal regulations. Additionally, the team wants to assess even more possible sites, such as smaller reservoirs, estuaries, and even coastal locales.
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