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The global evolution of floating solar PV

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 Nguyen Dang Anh Thi

THE EVOLUTION
OF FLOATING SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAICS

July 16, 2017

Contents
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 3
2. TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 3
2.1. Solar PV applications ....................................................................................................................3
2.2. Floating solar PV technology description ..................................................................................7
2.2. Technology advantages ............................................................................................................ 10
2.3. Technology disadvantages ....................................................................................................... 12
3. MARKET ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................... 13
3.1. Development history .................................................................................................................. 13
3.2. Key drivers of global solar PV applications ............................................................................ 18
3.3. Global market potential of floating solar PV ........................................................................... 20
3.4. Key players in the floating PV market ..................................................................................... 22
CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................................... 25
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 26

Figure 1: Typical solar PV applications

Figure 2. Layout of a typical floating PV system
Figure 3. A floating PV structure product by Sumitomo Mitsui
Figure 4. Temperature dependent I-V curve
Figure 5: Global solar PV installation as of 2016
Figure 6: Global floating PV installation as of 2016
Figure 7: Turnkey PV price, historical and projection
Figure 8: Current efficiencies of commercial PV modules
Figure 9: Global floating panel market potential
Figure 10: Japan floating solar panels market revenue, by product, 2014 – 2025
Figure 11: Global floating solar panels market, by region, 2015 (%)
Figure 12: Typical installations of floating PV by Ciel & Terre
Figure 13: Global installation of floating PV by Ciel & Terre

(Cover photo: Sumitomo Mitsui Construction)

Page | 2
1. INTRODUCTION

Solar energy is classified as a clean and renewable alternative to fossil fuels. With the

strong commitments of the national governments around the world toward greenhouse

gases (GHG) reduction, solar Photovoltaics (PV) is chosen to play its leading role as a

clean technology solution to reduce the GHG emissions in the power sector.

In many countries, land recourses are limited for large scale ground-mounted solar PV

systems. In addition, rooftop areas in housing, commercial and industrial buildings may

not be essential for rooftop solar solution. In this context, floating solar PV systems are

the acceptable ecological alternative solutions. Floating solar photovoltaics is now also

known as “floatovoltaics”.

By covering a significant surface area on a body of water, the floatovoltaics system

conserves water by reducing evaporation, while the shading from its panels limits algae

growth. The system presents no risks or dangers to wildlife and surrounding habitats

when implemented. More importantly, the natural cooling effect provided by the water

allows the PV panels to operate more efficiently and produce more power than traditional

ground-mounted systems.

This paper analyzes recent development of floating solar PV technology, examines the

global trend and potential future application of the technology.

2. TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS

2.1. Solar PV applications

According to Alok Sahu et al [1], there are five typical solar photovoltaic (PV) applications

which are ground-mounted, roof-top, canal-top, offshore and floating. Photo illustrations

of these applications are introduced in the Figure 1.

Page | 3
 Figure 1: Typical solar PV applications

(1). Ground-mounted/conventional land based solar system

Ground-mounted PV systems are generally large, utility-scale solar power plants. Their

solar modules are held in place by racks or frames that are attached to ground based

mounting supports. Ground based mounting supports include:

● Pole mounts, which are single-minded directly into the ground or fixed in concrete.

● Foundation mounts, such as concrete slabs or poured footings.

● Ballasted footing mounts, such as steel bases or concrete that use weight to

secure the solar module system in position and do not have need of ground penetration.

This type of mounting system is well suited for sites where dig is not possible such as

capped landfills and it simplifies decommissioning or relocation of solar module systems.

(2). Roof top solar system

A rooftop solar PV system is a system that has its electricity generating solar panels

mounted on the rooftop of a residential or commercial building or structure. The various

components of such a system include photovoltaic modules, mounting systems, cables,

solar inverters and other electrical accessories. A rooftop PV power station (either on-grid

or off-grid) can be used in con junction with other power sources like diesel generators,
Page | 4
wind turbine etc. This system is capable of providing a continuous source of power.

Rooftop mounted systems are small compared to ground-mounted PV power stations

with capacities in the megawatt range. Rooftop PV systems on residential buildings

typically feature a capacity of about 5-20 kW, while those mounted on commercial

buildings often reach 100 kW or more.

(3). Canal top solar system

Conventionally Solar Plants are set up on ground requiring massive amount of land area.

To avoid acquisition of large area of land, the new concept of setting Solar PV plant on

Canal was conceived. By eliminating the use of land, not only deforestation is avoided

but reforestation is encouraged through landscaping.

(4). Offshore solar PV system

Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth's surface; they receive a great amount of solar

energy. The available solar resource could be exploited to counteract the current

generation of electricity using solar PV technology. Due to the land scarcity onshore, the

offshore environment which takes full advantage of sun rays during the day is an ideal

option for setting up PV plants. Since one of the key components in PV panels is

Cadmium Chloride, which is extremely toxic and expensive, it affects both the

manufacturing process and the price of solar panels. The seawater contains Magnesium

Chloride, which could replace the highly toxic and expensive Cadmium Chloride.

(5). Floating solar PV system

Floating PV system is a newly development technology. There are many places around

the world that do not have enough land for PV installations, mainly islands such as Japan,

Korea, Singapore, Philippines and many others.

A comparative advantage and disadvantages of the various solar PV installations are

listed in Table 1.

Page | 5
Applications Advantages Disadvantages

Ground- • Suitable for small and large- • Limited land resources in urban

mounted scale systems. areas.

• Convenient in operation and • Solid foundations and stable

maintenance. structure required to protect from

storms and high winds.

• Longer construction time needed

for civil works.

Rooftop • Space optimization by • May have shading losses due to

utilization of rooftop areas. structure obstacles

• Increases the lifetime value • Roof may not properly fit to the

of covered roof. required system capacity.

• Easier and faster to install

than ground-mounted

systems.

Canal • Land conservation. • Lack of availability of canals.

• Save canal water from • Complicated and lengthy

evaporation. structures to accommodate

• Higher module efficiency modules.

compared to land based • Difficult for maintenance.

systems due to water cooling • Panels, structure etc. may lead to

effect by evaporation contamination issues of fresh

water.

Offshore • Reduce the land dependence • Erosion of PV panel cause by sea

• Higher module efficiency water may require higher panel

compared to land based cost.

Page | 6
 Applications Advantages Disadvantages

systems due to water cooling • High maintenance cost required.

effect by evaporation

• Almost no shading effect

Floating • Land conservation • Potential erosion of PV

• Reduction of water components

evaporation • Obstruction to fishing and

• Improved water quality by transportation activities

reducing photosynthesis and

algae growth.

Source: Alok Sahu, Neha Yadav, K. Sudhakar (2016)

2.2. Floating solar PV technology description

A floating solar PV system consists of four components that are the floating system,

mooring system, underwater cables and the PV system.

(1). Floating System: A floating body, including structure and floater, that allows the

installation of the PV module.

(2). Mooring System: Can adjust to water level fluctuations while maintaining its position

in a southward direction

(3). Underwater Cable: Transfers the generated power from land to the PV system.

(4). PV System: PV generation equipment, that are PV modules installed on top of the

floating system, inverter, controller, substation and distribution line.

The layout of a typical floating PV system is introduced in Figure 2.

Page | 7
 Figure 2. Layout of a typical floating PV system (Source: Young-Kwan Choi, Ph.D. [2])

Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd, a company from Japan has commercialized a

floating PV structure product as illustrated in Figure 8 [3].

Figure 3. A floating PV structure product by Sumitomo Mitsui

Page | 8
This structure allows quick installation and easy expansion with the following features.

1. Floats: The float is a buoyant body that 2. Upright Stands: When mounted to the

rests above the water and also acts as a float, this acts as a base component that

solar panel installation base. It also produces an angle of inclination for the

includes components for the fixing of solar panels.

mooring cables.

3. Bridges: The bridge is a component 4. Binding Bands: The binding band

that connects floats to one another and fixes floats together. Two varieties are

serves as a foothold during construction available to match the wind pressure

and maintenance. load.

5. Anchor Bolts: These bolts anchor the 6. Solar Panel Brackets: The fixing

solar panel brackets to the floats. brackets are fixed with float bolts and act

as a support fitting to fix the solar panels

in place.

Page | 9
Source: Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd

Floating solar PV system could be installed on various fresh water bodies such as lakes,

ponds, dams, reservoirs, fish farms, canals etc. therefore this technology could be

integrated with other facilities such as hydro power, irrigation, thermal power, water

treatment…

2.2. Technology advantages

The most important parameter considered for the performance evaluation of the floating

solar PV is the module effective conversion efficiency in operative conditions, which

affects the electricity generation and thus the most valuable product of the component.

The conversion efficiency of a PV module is given by the ratio between the generated

electrical power and the incident solar radiation intensity, according to the following

expression:

Pmax
ηel = 𝑥 100%
S x Apv

where η el is the electrical efficiency (%), Pmax is the power generated by PV module (W),

S is the solar radiation intensity incident on the PV module (W/m2) and Apv is the front PV

module surface exposed to the solar radiation intensity (m 2) [1].

A typical PV module converts 4-18% of the incident solar energy into electricity,

depending upon the type of solar cells and climatic conditions [1]. The rest of the incident

solar radiation is converted into heat, which significantly increases the temperature of the

PV. The power output of solar cells varies according to change in temperature. Due to

this efficiency of the PV module depend on the temperature so if we installed solar PV

Page | 10
systems on the water surface benefit from a significant lower ambient temperature in

virtue to the cooling effect of water. If aluminum frames are used for supporting the floating

solar PV module, it carries out the cooler temperature from water as well, bringing down

the overall temperature of the modules.

It is clear that the floating PV modules are more exposure to a lower ambient temperature

of the water bodies, then these modules have lower temperature than ground-mounted

PV modules. More importantly, this effect is considered the main factor to enhance

capacity factor of the floating PV systems when referring to the temperature dependent

I-V curve as displayed in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Temperature dependent I-V curve (Source: RENAC)

A study by Young-Kwan Choi (2014) suggested that floating PV system has a capacity

factor higher from 7.6% to 13.5% than that of ground-mounted PV system [2]. A modeling

result conducted by McKay Abe (2013) showed that placing solar arrays on water will

increase their energy output and efficiency levels by 8% to 10% [4].

Page | 11
In addition to increasing energy output, other significant advantages of floating PV system

are:

• Land conservation: this is critically important to the jurisdictions where the land

resource is limited. This could also speed up the installation because of no land

acquisition required.

• Water conservation by reduction of evaporation, this is an advantage in areas with

limited water resources.

Other advantages of floating PV system that have been proved by Young-Kwan Choi

(2014) are its comparable investment cost (+1.2%, without consideration of land

acquisition cost) and faster installation because of modular structure design.

2.3. Technology disadvantages

There are several disadvantages of floating PV system that needs to be considered for

the project development, including:

 The floating PV system is more exposure to hydraulic and weather conditions, then

may result in unstable power output.

 Fishing and transportation activities may be affected by the floating system.

 Located within the water environment could lead to the corrosion of modules and

structures, thus could reduce the system lifetime.

Page | 12
3. MARKET ANALYSIS

3.1. Development history

According to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), there were 303

Gigawatts of solar PV systems installed until 2016 [5], reaching a CAGR of 29.7% in the

last 10 years. The following figure shows the historical development of solar PV globally.

Figure 5: Global solar PV installation as of 2016 (Source: IRENA, 2017)

Of the global PV installations until 2016, only seven countries have already accounted

for 75% of installed capacity, these are China (77.4 GW), Japan (42.8 GW), Germany

(41.3 GW), USA (40.9 GW), Italy (19.3 GW), India (9.1 GW) and Korea (4.4 GW).

While solar PV industry has had more than 100 years history of development, floating

solar PV has just 10 years of age since the first system installed at a vineyard in Napa

Valley, California, the United States. Other systems were installed in the same year in

Japan, France, and India but they were experimental systems.

At the Far Niente winery in California, in an effort to both conserve vine acreage and

expand on their existing ground-mounted system, they placed 1,000 solar panels over

Page | 13
an irrigation pond on the property with a total capacity of 175 kW [6]. The panels were

secured on 130 floating pontoons and connected to the land-based system to

collectively generate 477 kW at peak output. Combined with the ground-mounted

system, the additional floating panels allow the facility to completely offset its electrical

needs. By installing the panels over the pond, Far Niente was able to save more than

75% of an acre of vines, equivalent to US$150,000 worth of bottled wine annually [7].

However, the global floating PV technology was not well development until 2013, one

year after the introduction of Feed-in-tariff (FIT) mechanism [8] for renewable energy in

Japan as an effort of energy transition because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster

happened in 2011. With a high FIT of US$53.4 Cent/kWh, floating PV in Japan has been

really boosted with 45 systems added to the grid, leading the global deployment of

floating solar PV. The following figure shows how floating PV was added to the global

energy generation system since the first plant installed in 2007.

Figure 6: Global floating PV installation as of 2016 [9]

Page | 14
According to a statistics report by Solar Asset Management [10], as of 2016, there were

70 floating PV systems around the world, just consideration of capacity from 5 kW and

above. Of these systems, there are some facts to know:

• Global combined capacity: 94,358 kW

• World’s largest plant: 20 MW (Anhui, China - 2016)

• World’s smallest plant: 5 kW (Orlando, US - 2016)

• World’s largest quantity: 45 plants with combined capacity of 56.5 MW (Japan)

• Percentage of floating PV to all solar PV applications in 2016: 0.0311%

Following Japan, floating PV technology is also popular in Korea with 13 plants for a

combined capacity of 2,271 kW, in which the largest system has a capacity of 1,000 kW

installed at the inlet water channel of the EWP thermal power plant [11].

Recently, the world largest floating PV plant with a capacity of 40 MW was connected

to the grid in China in May 2017, also at the same location of a coal mining area in

Anhui, China [12]. The world total combined capacity of floating PV is now 134,358 kW.

The list of 71 floating PV plants around the world (capacity 5 kW and above), as of July

2017 is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Statistic of 71 floating PV plants around the world, as of July 2017

Rank Size Name of reservoir (lake) / Country City/Province Operating
(kW) Name of Plant from
1 40000 Coal mining subsidence area China Anhui Province May. 2017
of Huainan City
2 20000 Coal mining subsidence area China Anhui Province Apr. 2016
of Huainan City
3 7500 Kawashima Taiyou to shizen Japan Saitama Oct. 2015
no megumi Solarpark
4 6338 Queen Elizabeth II reservoir UK London Mar. 2016
5 3000 Otae Province South Sangju City Oct. 2015
Korea Gyeongsang Bukdo
6 3000 Jipyeong Province South Sangju City Oct. 2015
Korea Gyeongsang Bukdo
7 2991 Godley Reservoir UK Godley Jan. 2016
8 2449 Tsuga Ike Japan Mie Aug. 2016
9 2398 Sohara Ike Japan Mie Mar. 2016
10 2313 Sakasama Ike Japan Hyogo Apr. 2015
11 2000 Reservior in Kumagaya city Japan Saitama Dec. 2014

Page | 15
Rank Size Name of reservoir (lake) / Country City/Province Operating
(kW) Name of Plant from
12 2000 Kinuura Lumberyard Japan Aichi Feb. 2016
13 2000 Yado Ooike (Sun Lakes Japan Hyogo Jan. 2016
Yado)
14 1751 Hirono Shinike Japan Hyogo Sep. 2016
15 1708 Yakenoike Japan Hyogo Jul. 2016
16 1700 Nishi Hiraike Japan Hyogo Apr. 2015
17 1700 Hyogo No.9 Plant Japan Hyogo Apr. 2015
18 1500 Kakogawa City Japan Hyogo Sep. 2015
19 1485 Funatsu Ooike Japan Hyogo Sep. 2015
20 1430 Kawahara Yama Solar Plant Japan Hyogo Dec. 2015
21 1330 Mito City Japan Ibaraki Aug. 2015
22 1260 Hira Ike Japan Hyogo Jul. 2016
23 1212 Kobe Ooike Japan Hyogo May 2016
24 1203 Ainoike Japan Hyogo May 2016
25 1200 Higashi Hiraike Japan Hyogo Apr. 2015
26 1180 Solar on the water Okegawa Japan Saitama Jul. 2013
27 1176 Kasai City Japan Hyogo Feb. 2015
28 1153 Arashiyama floating solar Japan Saitama Sep. 2015
plant
29 1125 Hirai Ike Japan Nara Jul. 2015
30 1098 Shimane Solar Power Yasugi Japan Shimane Nov. 2014
31 1078 Nagaike Nishi Ike Japan Hyogo Mar. 2016
32 1076 Fukuike Japan Hyogo Jun. 2015
33 1008 Tokorozawa Ike Japan Hyogo Mar. 2015
34 1000 DREAM Solar Float Japan Osaka Oct 2016
Kounoyama
35 990 Kasai City Japan Hyogo Oct 2016
36 973 Kasaoka Jyubancho Japan Okayama May 2016
Reservior
37 850 Maeno Ike Japan Hyogo Sep. 2014
38 808 Sakurashita Ike Japan Hyogo Feb. 2016
39 696 Kawagoe City Resource Japan Saitama Jun. 2014
Convention Centre
40 631 Isawa Ike Japan Tokushima Oct 2016
41 630 Torigaike Floating Solar Japan Hyogo Feb. 2016
Plant
42 528 Fukuchi machi Japan Fukuoka Aug. 2015
43 504 Imandou Ike Japan Osaka Sep. 2015
44 495 Ochang South Chungcheonbuk Feb. 2015
Korea
45 490 Jyuman Ike Japan Hyogo Mar. 2016
46 477 Napa Country Far Niente USA California 2007
Winery (177 kW floating)

Page | 16
Rank Size Name of reservoir (lake) / Country City/Province Operating
(kW) Name of Plant from
47 471 Polybell UK South Yorkshire Dec. 2015
48 460 Aisai City Japan Aichi Dec. 2015
49 400 Towa Arcs Yoshimi Floating Japan Saitama Apr. 2016
Solar Plant
50 343 Pontecorvo Italy Italy Mar. 2016
51 300 Rengeji Ike Japan Fukuoka Jul. 2016
52 200 Sheepland farm UK Wargrave City Aug. 2014
53 108 Sungai Labu Malaysia Sepang City Nov. 2015
54 100 Ben Acre UK Benacre Village Dec. 2015
55 96 Swimsol Lagoon Maldives Baa Atoll Feb. 2016
56 59 Yoshioka Kaatsukijyou Japan Chiba Apr. 2016
57 50 Reeders UK - Dec. 2015
58 50 Eshkol reservoir Israel Jerusalem Oct 2014
59 48 Inogayaike Solar Plant Japan Hyogo Aug. 2014
60 40 Yanagiike Solar Plant Japan Hyogo Jan. 2014
61 33 The Slufter Netherlands Rotterdam Oct 2015
62 25 Westpoort industrial estate Netherlands Groningen Mar. 2016
63 22 Nofar Israel Yavne Nov. 2015
64 15 Piolenc France Piolenc City Feb. 2011
65 13 Bör Sweden Bor Dec. 2015
66 10 Kunde Winery USA Sonoma Jun. 2016
67 10 Rajarhat India West Bengal Jan. 2015
68 6 Yoshiwaraike Japan Kagawa Nov. 2014
69 5 Pond Gardens of Bishan Singapore Bishan May2013
Park
70 5 Yothathikan Thailand Samut Songkhram Oct 2014
71 5 UFC Orlando USA Orlando Mar. 2016
Total 134,308 Average capacity (kW) 1,892
(Source: Solar Asset Management, 2016 and WEF, 2017)

According to the above statistics, the average capacity of a floating PV system is as

small as 1,892 kW when compared with the world largest system of 40,000 kW.
However, this world largest system in China has proved that floating PV system could
be developed at utility scale on a commercial basis.

Page | 17
3.2. Key drivers of global solar PV applications

Solar PV is playing an important role in decarbonization process of the energy system.

According to IRENA, the global PV applications may reach the installed capacity of

2,921 GW in 2030 and 6,348 GW in 2050, up from 303 GW in 2016 [13].

Key drivers to boost the global solar PV applications are known as the attractive

governmental incentives, the decline of PV system pricing, and the increase of PV

module efficiency.

Also according to IRENA, it is expected that the price of turnkey PV to drop to 1.92

US$/W in 2020, a 61% decrease as compared to 2010 [14].

Figure 7: Turnkey PV price, historical and projection (Source: IRENA, 2014)

Another salient finding is the roughly 75% decrease in solar panel prices from 2010 to

2017, and the cost of inverters also dropped roughly 63% at the same time, though that

item makes up a smaller share of the pie. Overall, the cost of an installed array fell by

some 56% from 2010 to 2017.

Going along with the PV cost decline is the improvement of PV module efficiency.

Commercial monocrystalline solar panels have the improved their highest efficiencies

Page | 18
to reach the range of 17% to 21%, whereas the majority of panels range from 14% to

16% efficiency rating. SunPower panels are known for being the most efficient solar

panel brand available on the market efficiency ratings as high as 22.5% [15]. Figure 8

shows the reported efficiencies of current best-performing commercial PV modules.

Figure 8: Current efficiencies of commercial PV modules (Source: Energy Sage)

Page | 19
3.3. Global market potential of floating solar PV

As the global installation of PV applications increase, floating PV market is expected to

perform consistently with that trend. There are a few market researches on floating solar

panels, that provide implications for the floating solar PV market.

According to a market study report published by Credence Research, the floating solar

panel market was valued at US$ 0.16 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach US$ 1.6

billion by 2022, expanding at a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 113.9% from

2016 to 2022 [16]. Another research by Grand View Research forecasts that global

floating panel market is expected to reach US$ 2.5 billion by 2025 [17].

Figure 9 below shows the projection of global floating panel market by Credence

Research.

Figure 9: Global floating panel market potential (Source: Credence Research, 2016)

In the report by Grand View Research (2017), it is projected that the demand for

stationary floating panel accounted for over 90% of the overall revenue share in 2015

because of its cost competitiveness as compared to tracking floating panel. Tracking

floating solar panel is expected to grow due to the increased efficiency of the panels

with tracking technology.

According to Grand View Research (2017), Japan accounted for over 75% of the overall

revenue share in 2015 due to the low availability of land and favorable initiatives taken

Page | 20
by the government to promote the use of renewable sources of energy, mainly the

attractive FIT. In addition, the industry is expected to grow substantially on account of

the numerous plans sanctioned by the Japanese government. Figure 10 below shows

the Japan floating solar panel market revenue during 2014 to 2025.

Figure 10: Japan floating solar panels market revenue, by product, 2014 - 2025

(US$ million, Source: Grand View Research (2017))

Asia Pacific dominated the global floating solar panel market, where demand in Japan,

Korea, Australia, India, Singapore, the Philippines are increasing and will spread all over

the world.

Figure 11: Global floating solar panels market, by region, 2015 (%)

(Source: Grand View Research (2017))

Page | 21
Key drivers to foster the growth of floating panel technology in the next 10 years:

• The growing focus of various governments towards the use of renewable energy for

power generation

• Lower environmental pollution by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels

• Declining panel cost leading to lower per unit cost of generation is a key factor

promoting the use of solar technology for power generation.

• Lack of availability of suitable land for installation.

3.4. Key players in the floating PV market

Of the 72 floating solar PV projects globally, a company named Ciel & Terre dominates

the market with 43 plants, accounting for 59.7% of total installation globally. Of these 43

plants, there are 40 plants installed in Japan with a combined capacity of 54 MW,

accounting for 88.9% of this market.

According to Ciel & Terre, the company has completed 69 MW installed capacity by

2016. Another 135 MW installed capacity is under implementation and is expected to be

completed by the end of 2017, making a combined capacity of 204 MW worldwide [18].

Typical installations by Ciel & Terre are introduced in Figure 12 [19].

Figure 12: Typical installations of floating PV by Ciel & Terre

(Source: Ciel & Terre (2017))

Page | 22
Figure 13 shows the accumulative installed capacity by Ciel & Terre worldwide.

Figure 13: Global installation of floating PV by Ciel & Terre (Source: Ciel & Terre (2017))

As a newly developed technology, floating PV players are really limited around the world

with just a few developers. Other developers involved in this market with just several

megawatts installed capacity experience such as Ibiden Engineering, Takiron

Engineering, Environmental-resources development, West Energy Solutions & Kyoraku

Page | 23
Thompson Technology Industries, Inc. (all are Japanese companies), K-Water (Korea),

Sunfloat (the Netherlands), Swimsol (Austria), Solaris Synergy (Israel) and REC Solar

(Singapore).

As mentioned earlier, Sumitomo Mitsui Construction has commercialized a floating PV

structure product that is a plug-and-play system allowing quick installation and easy

expansion.

Kyocera Corporation, Trina Solar, Sharp Corporation and Yingli Solar are the main PV

panel suppliers in the market, as indicated in the report by Grand View Research (2017).

Page | 24
CONCLUSIONS

With 10 years of development history, floating solar PV technology has made a

significant progress by having the world largest system installed in China in May 2017

with 40 MW capacity. Recent efforts of national governments around the world to

promote renewable energy by issuing attractive investment incentives, together with the

decline in turkey PV system cost and the improvement of PV module efficiency are three

key drivers to elevate the floating PV technology in the last 3 years. As land resources

have become more and more limited, floating PV technology has proved to be the

reasonable solution in the upcoming years for national governments around the world

to meet their targets on solar PV deployment and GHG reductions.

Page | 25
 REFERENCES

[1]. Alok Sahu, Neha Yadav, K. Sudhakar. “Floating photovoltaic power plant: A
review” (2016)
[2]. Young-Kwan Choi, Ph.D. “A Study on Power Generation Analysis of Floating PV
System Considering Environmental Impact” (2014)
[3]. Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co., Ltd. http://pv-float.com/english/
[4]. McKay, Abe. "Floatovoltaics: Quantifying the Benefits of a Hydro-Solar Power
Fusion" (2013). Pomona Senior Theses. Paper 74.
http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/74 (retrieved July 16, 2017)
[5]. REN21. Renewables 2017 Global Status Report (2017)
[6]. Kim Trapani and Miguel Redón Santafé. “A review of floating photovoltaic
installations: 2007–2013” (2014)
[7]. http://solaroutreach.org/2015/02/23/floatovoltaics/#.WWp_doTyvIU (retrieved July
16, 2017)
[8]. http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/summary-of-the-implementing-regulations-
20667/ (retrieved July 16, 2017)
[9]. NREL. https://www.nrel.gov/tech_deployment/state_local_governments/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2017/01/FloatingSolar-InstalledCapacity1.jpg (retrieved July 16,
2017)
[10]. Solar Asset Management. http://www.solarassetmanagement.us/download-
floating-plants-overview (retrieved July 16, 2017)
[11]. http://energy.korea.com/archives/55741 (retrieved July 16, 2017)
[12]. WEF. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/china-worlds-largest-floating-
solar-power/ (retrieved July 16, 2017)
[13]. IRENA. “Letting in the light: How solar photovoltaics will revolutionize the
electricity system” (2016).
[14]. IRENA. “REthinking Energy 2014: Towards a new power system” (2014)
[15]. Energy Sage. http://news.energysage.com/what-are-the-most-efficient-solar-
panels-on-the-market/ (retrieved July 16, 2017)
[16]. Credence Research. “Floating Solar Panels Market – Growth, Share,
Opportunities, Competitive Analysis, and Forecast 2015 – 2022” (2016)
[17]. Grand View Research. “Floating Solar Panels Market Size & Share, Industry
Report, 2014-2025” (2017)
[18]. Ciel & Terre. “Our references the floating solar expert with Hydrelio® technology”
(2017)
[19]. Ciel & Terre. “Company profile, the floating solar expert” (2017)

Page | 26

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