Solar Energy Articles

Installation of Solar Power Panel Plants on Water

The solar panel market today faces major challenges in two aspects. Firstly, the production of solar panels requires large amount of real estate. Secondly, they have a high maintenance and fabrication costs. There is a new technology that serves as a relief for the above stated problems. This is known popularly as floating solar panels. In this article, we are going to have a look at this new paradigm in the field of alternative energy.

Many of the stakeholders of the solar panel technology are constantly looking out for the new approach that can be introduced in the markets. Leading companies of the world who have their investments driven by the solar panel production are finding no land to avail for their manufacturing plants. Hence there is a proposal by the project team of Franco-Israeli partnership is into the areas of proposition to explore an extremely new and untouched area in solar panels. The solar installations can be considered to be done on water, which is the proposal put forward by the team.

Industrial water basins are to be used for this purpose without hampering the other water bodies like the open sea, natural reserves of water, tourist resorts, etc. This makes sure that the new solar panel plants that are going to be built from now on are not going to have a negative impact on to the landscapes of the nature. The Franco-Israeli team is of the opinion that the proposal is a win-win situation. They believe that there are many water reservoirs that can be availed for energy, industrial as well as the agricultural users.

After the solution was adapted for the problem of space, the team also addressed the cost issues related to solar panels. It is really a wonder that for the first time, plans are being carried out in order to combine sun and water in a joint venture to produce electricity.

The reduction of the costs incurred in the solar panel production site setup with the help of two things mainly. First is that an attempt is being made to resolve the issues of quantity of solar cells by making use of lesser solar cells. This is implemented via the sun energy concentration systems (mirror based). It keeps the solar power output constant with reduced number of solar cells in the solar panels. Secondly there must be a presence of a cooling system using the water. It is the same water on which the solar panels are floating. This addresses the cost issues of the otherwise cooling systems which are expensive. These solar panels when installed cause the efficiency to be better. This increases reliability and also the cost effectiveness.

In order to improve the marketability of the product, it is proposed that the system design is done in such a way that a single solar platform is used in order to assemble the solar cells according to the desired power output. More modules of solar cells mean better power output.

The team also considered the impacts on the environment due to this technology. The environmental effects had to come in picture because the surfaces of water bodies are very important to the plants and animal sustaining life in water. The lining between the water and the air serves as a breathing space for living beings below. This is the area where the oxygen can penetrate the water making it available as dissolved oxygen.

The project that we have been talking about in this article is a result of collaboration of Israel's Solaris Synergy and a French group by the name of EDF. When this project of solar power plants to be set up on water bodies got a go ahead, many new projects are motivated to spring up accordingly.

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