Floating Solar & Wind Installations Gain Ground

Floating solar and floating wind installations share one obvious thing in common: They both float on water, not taking up land. However, the locations, purposes and benefits of floating solar and wind differ in many regards. Both provide advantages compared to other types of solar and wind installations and are gaining steam with increasing project activity.

The main draw of floating solar power installations is that they don't require land on which to build. By utilizing existing bodies of water, such as reservoirs, lakes and dams, floating solar power maximizes land use efficiency without compromising agricultural or ecological areas. The cooling effect of water on floating solar panels can enhance their performance and overall energy generation efficiency. This increased efficiency contributes to higher energy yields and a more cost-effective utilization of solar resources. In addition, floating solar panels can aid in reducing water evaporation by minimizing the body of water's direct exposure to sunlight.

Industrial Info is tracking approximately $10 billion worth of floating solar projects worldwide. Most of these are in Asia, which is home to 90 projects, while Europe runs a distant second with 45 projects. The floating solar facilities presently under construction vary greatly in size, ranging from a 7.5-megawatt (MW) facility in the Netherlands to a 110-MW installation in Saudi Arabia.

India takes the lead in the value of floating solar projects. Among the projects under construction in the country is the grassroot floating solar installation at the Omkareshwar Dam in Madhya Pradesh. Construction on the project began earlier this year and is expected to be completed by yearend, when the facility will provide 90 MW of renewable energy. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for more details.

Floating solar projects have been slower to evolve in North America. Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) is installing a pilot-scale floating solar project at its cooling pond at the Hines Energy Complex in Bartow, Florida. The two-acre pilot on water will include 1,800 solar modules that can produce nearly 1 megawatt of electricity. At a May groundbreaking ceremony for the project, Shayna White, Duke's Florida project manager, said the small-scale pilot on Duke property will be a test to determine if the technology behind floating solar arrays has better efficiency and capabilities than land-based solar farms. The smallness of the project shows when comparing its less than 1 MW of generation with the more than 2,200 MW provided by the natural gas-fired Hines plant.

There are a few disadvantages to floating solar power installations, the chief of which is that bodies of water for which they are suitable, such as lakes and reservoirs, are limited in number. In addition, construction and maintenance can be more difficult, requiring specialized equipment and skilled personnel. Finally, floating solar installations can affect aquatic ecosystems by disrupting water flows and blocking sunlight into the water body.

Floating wind installations have their own advantages. Like offshore windfarms fixed to the seabed, floating windfarms can free up terrestrial space for other uses such as agriculture and recreation. Floating windfarms, which are tethered to the ocean floor using mooring lines, can be situated further out than ocean bed-attached wind turbines as well as in areas that have steep coastal shelves. Winds are stronger and more continuous further out to sea, so floating turbines can generate more power than those fixed to the seabed near to shore. The turbines planned for floating windfarms are often larger and able to generate more power than bed-anchored offshore windfarms. Being placed further out minimizes the turbines' visibility from land, potentially leading to greater acceptance from coastal communities.

Floating wind installations are even rarer than floating solar installations. According to a recent Reuters article, there is only a little more than 120 MW of floating wind power in operation throughout the world.

Most of the $57.5 billion in floating wind projects being tracked by Industrial Info are set to kick off in the future. There are exceptions to this, but most of the floating windfarms presently under construction are much smaller than some of the planned behemoth projects. For example, TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France) is at work on a 30-MW floating pilot project that will feature three 10-MW turbines in the Mediterranean Sea. Construction kicked off last year and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2024. The pilot project is being built in anticipation of a larger 500-MW project. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.

Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) (Stavanger, Norway) is wrapping up a floating windfarm to provide power to its oil fields in the North Sea. The Hywind Tampen project will feature 11 turbines, each rated at 8 MW, to help supply power to equipment at the Gullfaks and Snorre fields. The project is designed to shave 250,000 tons per year of carbon-dioxide production from the two fields. Subscribers can click here for the full report.

Larger projects are planned to kick off in the near future. In the South China Sea, for example, Power Construction Corporation of China (Beijing, China) soon will begin construction on a floating windfarm with 12 tubular towers, each fitted with a 16.7-MW turbine-generator set, to generate about 200 MW of power. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2025. Subscribers can click here for the full report.

Larger undertakings potentially wait in store. Among the largest planned floating wind projects is Equinor's Firefly project, which will be located in water depths of between 200 and 250 meters in the Sea of Japan off the South Korean coast. The floating windfarm would include 50 turbines, each rated at 15 MW, to achieve nameplate generation of 750 MW. Construction could begin in 2025 and would take an estimated two years to complete. Subscribers can click here for more details.

There are a few disadvantages to the construction of floating windfarms. They have higher initial costs compared to other types of windfarms due to the complexity of the floating structures and installation challenges. Like their floating solar counterparts, maintenance on floating windfarms can be more challenging and costly as well.

While floating solar and wind installations provide distinct advantages, the two technologies are still in their early stages. As costs come down and the technologies become more mainstream, the world may be seeing more floating forms of renewable energy generation in the future.