Critical Aspects And Challenges In FPV Projects

• Successful FPV projects require thorough feasibility studies, considering factors such as local weather, wind, snow, wave height, water depth, and water level variation
• The costs for mooring and anchoring in FPV projects can vary significantly, influenced by factors like water depth and soil of the waterbed
• The FPV industry faces challenges due to the lack of standards for floater thickness, wind and snow loads, and mounting solutions.

TaiyangNews Market Survey on Floating PV explored various aspects and challenges in floating photovoltaic projects, highlighting the critical importance of conducting a thorough feasibility study for successful FPV implementations. Several aspects must be considered when selecting a site such as local weather data, wind, snow, wave height, water depth and water level variation. For example, a variance in water level of more than 70% is typically not suitable for an FPV project, according to CEO of Isigenere Andrés Franco. Mooring and anchoring is a critical component as well as a cost driver for FPV projects. The costs for mooring and anchoring significantly differ – from 1Euro cent per W for an artificial pond with 5 m depth to about 9 Euro cents per W for a dam with 70 m depth and 30 m variance in water level. The soil of the waterbed is one among the several factors that influence the design of mooring and anchoring. Reliability, quality and longevity are the other critical aspects of the FPV.

Like any new technology, FPV also has several challenges. Lack of standards is one of the major bottlenecks for FPV. One major benefit of FPV is an increase in power yield due to the cooling effect. Based on experience, Franco characterizes a power gain of 3% to 5% as normal, 5% to 8% as the base case and anything above 8% as aggressive, while up to 15% is recorded in a few tropical regions. The lack of guidelines and models to estimate the gain in power yield due to the cooling effect of the FPV undermine the potential for FPV. He also points to the lack of specs for floater thickness. Wind and snow loads are the other key parameters that also require standards, as they do not often refer to the same factors, according to Jakob Schlaak from the Zimmermann's Project Management team. Mounting solutions specific to FPV is another case of lack of standards raised by a few FPV players. There are many more (see FPV On Different Water Bodies).

However, the good news is there is an increasing industry collaboration. DNV is leading multiple joint industry projects with stakeholders across the floating solar industry and the wider PV industry, aiming to bring together guidelines and standards for floating solar PV. In 2021, DNV published the world's first set of design guidelines for floating PV systems. It provides a comprehensive set of requirements, recommendations and guidelines for design, development, operation and decommissioning of FPV systems.

During the Intersolar Europe 2023 conference, Maria Ikhennicheu, specialist engineer from INNOSEA, presented the Best Practices Guidelines for FPV based on the report that is part of the EU Horizon2020 financed TRUST PV Project. Ikhennicheu discussed 5 main challenges in development and the operation of an FPV farm – design and procurement, modeling, installation activities, O&M and critical reliability. On the other hand, SolarDuck's Francisco G. Vozza, chief commercial officer & GM Norway points out that whatever progress happening with standards is only relevant for inland water bodies, but not for offshore FPV as yet. Thus, SolarDuck is working with all the main bodies globally to bring out such standards (see Membrane Based Solution For Floating PV Systems).

An even more critical bottleneck for FPV is the lack of regulatory frameworks, which was unanimously agreed by all FPV solution providers we discussed with. Many countries have not yet defined regulatory frameworks as to what kind of water bodies can be used, how big the system can be, the extent of surface coverage, minimum safety distance, etc. Even if there are first directives, they are often inadequate. Zimmermann's Schlaak cites Europe's largest solar market Germany as an example. Here, the first guidelines for FPV allows coverage only up to 15% of the water body with a restriction of 40 m distance to the bank, which makes FPV installations infeasible on many waterbodies economically. However, while a few countries such as the Netherlands and France have implemented FPV guidelines, others are in the process of doing so. Assessment of environmental impact of FPV and improving buyer awareness are the areas that need a bit of focus, although researchers and companies are increasingly working on it, as the earlier mentioned White Paper from BayWa r.e. shows.

The text is an excerpt from the TaiyangNews Floating PV 2024 Report, which can be downloaded for free here.