Continuing from our previous articles, this piece features participation from leading market players in floating solar technology, as part of the TaiyangNews Floating PV Market Survey. Ocean Sun, a listed company on Euronext Growth Oslo, is the only floating solution provider that is offering a patented membrane-based solution. The Norwegian company holds several patents and pending patents in the field. The company owns an IP portfolio, including patents and patent applications in all major markets. Its business model is also different with the company operating as a technology provider and working closely with EPCs, but not a manufacturer of components. Ocean Sun offers license agreements to developers and independent power producers to use its technology. The inhouse marine architects of the company design the system based on local conditions. Under the guidelines of the company, the installation is accomplished by third-party contractors using local workforce to reduce costs. The company's solution uses readily available materials, with the flexibility to choose between several world-leading suppliers ensuring high-volume deliveries at competitive prices worldwide. Ocean Sun has so far worked on 7 projects with a total capacity of 8 MW and the first MW-scale project was on Banja Lake in Albania with a total capacity of 2 MW that was commissioned in December 2022. The company is part of a prestigious test project with SPIC involving the first ever attempt to integrate FPV with offshore wind with a system of 500 MW capacity. The system was also commissioned in November 2022. The company is now working on projects in Spain, Greece and Singapore, and announced finishing a 250 kW floating solar demonstrator project for Acciona Energia in April in Spain (see Global Expansion Of Floating Solar PV Systems).
SolarDuck is a Dutch company that specializes in floating solar technology for offshore applications. The company was founded in 2019, as a spinoff from Damen Shipyards, by a team of experts in the maritime and offshore industries. SolarDuck has developed a proprietary floating technology that resembles an offshore oil platform, but instead of drilling for oil, it harnesses the power of the sun. After obtaining patents for its floater technology in 2021,the company has deployed its first demo project of64 kW with 4 interconnect platforms. "No more than2 years since the company was founded, the first pilot was already in water," said Francisco G. Vozza, chief commercial officer & GM Norway. SolarDuck is currently working on a number of projects to deploy its floating solar technology offshore. The company is now building a 540 kW full-scale pilot, which will be deployed this autumn in the North Sea, off the coast of The Hague. SolarDuck was awarded what is today the largest announced offshore floating solar project in the hybrid space – a 5 MW system as part of an offshore wind farm, off the coast of the Netherlands, in partnership with RWE. It is slated to start off commercial operations in 2026. The company has won a demonstration project in Tokyo Bay with about 100 kW, which is the effective capacity of one platform. SolarDuck has also signed an MoU for a780 kW pilot project in Malaysia, to be installed in2025. The overall projects in the company's pipeline add up to 3.5 GW, said Vozza (See Top Players In Floating PV Industry).
China's Fost Solar, also known as Bosch Xiamen, started as an OEM manufacturer for floaters in 2017. Then in 2019, Fost also started operating under its own brand. Note that the company has no affiliation with Germany's Bosch GmbH. The company's business is now equally split between the2 streams – OEM and own brand. Apart from owning 3 factories in China, the company also owns several patents, and has co-constructed a laboratory with the universities of Xiamen and Fuzhou and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which provides the required technical and theoretical research support. The Chinese company offers float and electric design, product supply, construction services, installation, operation, and maintenance.
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.
.png?w=50&fm=png){kind=logo}