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Floating solar could help power nations with limited land (aussie.zone)

submitted 1 day ago by arbilp3@aussie.zone to c/environment@aussie.zone

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And in hot regional areas of Australia it could be used on dam reservoirs so as not to take up land used for other purposes but also to reduce water evaporation and produce extra energy.

“What we found is that offshore floating solar systems can generate more electricity over their lifetime – about 12% more than land-based systems under the same conditions.

“Because of this higher energy output, they also achieve greater carbon emission reductions. In simple terms, even though both systems use similar technology, placing solar panels on water can make them more effective.”

This is partly due to the cooling effect of the surrounding water, which conducts heat away from the solar panels more efficiently than air. The electrical efficiency of solar cells decreases as ambient temperatures increase, so this effect is particularly helpful in warm climates.

https://connectsci.au/news/news-parent/9388/Floating-solar-could-help-power-nations-with

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[–] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I feel like Australia is the country with the least need to do this.

[–] arbilp3@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago

You'd be surprised! I was surprised and I live here. You would think being such a large, dry, hot continent (in general) we'd have space enough for enormous solar farms, for example. One of the problems are the distances. If you put solar farms in distant places they are not financially viable (transport, infrastructure, etc, etc.

In some regional areas there's pushback against renewable projects sometimes for genuine reasons and sometimes for political reasons. I live in a regional area and have seen some of the attitudes, e.g. 'they're taking away our farming land', 'we don't like how they spoil the view', 'we don't like the powerlines', 'it is hurting our wildlife' (but there's plenty of farmers who don't blink when destroying bushland to create more cattle pasture).

Finding alternatives like putting the solar panels on open water if available, means that in some instances, community upset and land use can be avoided.

Also, floating panels can be very useful on open water projects like wastewater systems and irrigation dams, e.g.

https://www.energymagazine.com.au/largest-floating-solar-array-in-aus-switched-on/

https://australiancotton.com.au/news/saving-water-with-solar-floating-panel-trial-to-reduce-evaporation