Floating solar energy installations are on the rise. With Norway’s extensive experience and history from the maritime, offshore and energy industries, the country is well equipped to lead technological development in this solar floating segment.
Solar Floating Energy
Energy consultancy giant DNV GL has given its seal of approval to an innovative large-scale solar floating energy 'membrame' being developed by Norway’s Ocean Sun, as the design heads for its first full-scale installation as part of a project on a hydropower in Albania.
Smart Blue Innovation
Being engineered for operations in coastal waters and on man-made reservoirs. The Ocean Sun system uses modified silicon PV modules mounted on a flexible hydro-elastic floating membrane thus creating a solar energy producing 'powerhouse'.
Recommended: Green Energy: The WaveRoller Sustainable Clean Ocean Power
DNV GL’s so-called 'conformity statement' – which verifies the design methodology of the solar floating energy structure and ensures it complies with various standards and recommended practices, including in this case for Norwegian aquaculture – clears the way for a technology qualification process involving review of the Open Sun concept’s solar energy production, PV cells, electrical system and membrane.
Solar Floating Energy: 5 Systems
The Norwegian outfit has already built five systems, the oldest of which nearly three ago, of a range of sizes totalling 300kW, but the 2MW project at the Banja Dam, operated by compatriot utility Statkraft, is by far the biggest and will help further accelerate one of the world’s fastest-emerging renewables sectors.
Largest Floating Solar Power Plants in The World! The Countries' Supersized Floating Solar Farms
Hydropower operators have large plans to invest in solar floating energy solar solutions in their man-made reservoirs and hook it up to their already existing grid connections, but they need to be sure that the solar floating structure is sustainable, durable and safe. This verification by DNV GL is a vital first step in demonstrating Ocean Sun’s readiness for deploying robust floating solar solutions.
Recommended: Vortex Turbine Blue Energy: Underwater Kite
Blue Innovations: DNV GL
DNV GL is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. The company currently has about 14,500 employees and 350 offices operating in more than 100 countries, and provides services for several industries including maritime, renewable energy, oil & gas, electrification, food & beverage and healthcare. It was created in 2013 as a result of a merger between two leading organizations in the field, Det Norske Veritas (Norway) and Germanischer Lloyd (Germany).
DNV GL is the world's largest classification society, providing services for 13,175 vessels and mobile offshore units (MOUs) amounting to 265.4 million gt, which represents a global market share of 21%. It is also the largest technical consultancy and supervisory to the global renewable energy (particularly wind, wave, tidal and solar) and oil and gas industry, 65% of the world's offshore pipelines are designed and installed to DNV GL's technical standards.
Solar Energy
Developing and expanding solar floating power opens tremendous new opportunities in providing the world with sufficient renewable blue energy. The conformity statement is the first of its kind and was issued following a thorough verification process which sets the standard for the expansion of floating solar globally and opens opportunities to scale up solar energy production around the world.
A World Bank report on floating solar concluded the potential of the technology even under conservative assumptions to be 400GW. With coastal and open-sea build-out, the market would be enormous.
Recommended: Green Hydrogen Power: The Enormous Potential Worldwide
Though floating solar remains an emerging technology, in-land arrays are being seen as an increasingly attractive option for large-scale PV deployment on reservoirs and alongside hydropower facilities, especially where land is limited.
The largest such project currently is a 150MW development in Anhui, China, but, as Recharge has reported, that is soon set to be overshadowed by massive developments elsewhere in the world, including a 1GW plant in India and an sprawling 2.9GW complex off South Korea .
The world largest floating solar array outside China is the BayWa’s 27.4MW Bomhofsplas project in the Netherlands.
Photo by: BayWa r.e. renewable energy GmbH. Having completed three floating PV projects with 25 MW cumulative capacity in the Netherlands, BayWa is now constructing the 27.4 MW Bomhofsplas Floating Solar Farm in the country
Before you go!
Recommended: Gravitricity: Key Energy Storage Or Too Good To Be True?
Do you like this article about Gravitricity or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below. We try to respond the same day.
Like to write and publish your own article about renwable energy?
Click on 'Register' or push the button 'Write An Article' on the 'HomePage'