TaiyangNews' previous article from the floating PV report focused on leading players in the global floating PV market, highlighting Sungrow and Ciel & Terre. This new article shifts the spotlight to Zimmermann PV-Steel Group and Isigenere. Zimmermann PV-Steel Group has been extensively focusing on the various mounting structures for PV panels, especially in utility-scale projects (See Top Players In Floating PV Industry). The company has been adapting its products and business streams closely following the footprint of the solar industry. Thus, in addition to fixed mount solutions, the company is also offering trackers and solutions for agri-PV.
Zimmermann PV-Floating is yet another line extension of its business stream to provide mounting solutions for utility-scale solar projects. Zimmermann supplies only the floating PV system, but it has approved partners for mooring and anchoring design and planning, as well as installation of all components. Furthermore, the company has partnered with manufacturing facilities worldwide. Zimmermann focuses mainly on the European region with its main markets being the Netherlands, followed by Germany, Belgium, and now France, Italy and Spain.
The company has installed more than 250 MW of FPV so far and expects to reach close to 300 MW by the end of 2023, according to Jakob Schlaak from the company's Project Management team. Zimmermann's largest project so far has been the 41.1 MW installation in Sellingen, Germany, built with 76,616 modules in a record time of just 9 weeks. Isigenere is a Spanish FPV engineering and product development company established in 2008.
Isigenere manufactures and supplies floating solar structures as well as anchoring & mooring systems. Furthermore, the Spanish company provides system engineering as well as training, and supervises the installation of its floating, mooring and anchoring system. Isigenere offers both on- and off-site training courses, as well as on-site technical assistance and quality control of the FPV installation. The company also offers technical design for the FPV structure's optimization, along with the anchoring and mooring system to ensure efficient implementation. However, it has no intentions of taking up the role of an installer (see Global FPV Market Developments).
Isigenere started off as an FPV solution provider for agricultural setups with irrigation ponds, mainly for self-consumption. The systems were typically in the 100 to 500 kW scale. Following the course of FPV, which is moving to larger systems, the company has also started adapting its solutions to utility-scale FPV power plants. Over time, the company has gained experience in executing FPV projects on a wide variety of water bodies. These include simpler man-made irrigation reservoirs with square shapes that support onshore anchoring to more complex places like anchoring at a depth of 70 m with water level variations of about 30 m and waves exceeding 2 m in height. "Now, we can handle a wide spectrum of technical complexities," said Andrés Franco, CEO of Isigenere.
Isigenere's main focus is on the western part of the world and has manufacturing facilities in Europe – Spain and Portugal – while planning to establish manufacturing capabilities in other key markets such as Latin America and the US. The company has a total installed capacity of 45 MW. "If things go well, we should start building our first near-shore floating solar project soon in Asia for a Western developer with a capacity of 6 MW," added Franco.
Stay tuned for upcoming articles featuring other companies that participated in the TaiyangNews Market Survey on Floating PV.
The text is an excerpt from the TaiyangNews Floating PV 2024 Report, which can be downloaded for free here.