Moving to a world of sustainable and clean energy is not a wish: it's a cure. The Earth is already shaken by the first abrupt climate changes, we need to reverse the trend of our greed because we no longer have much time to make amends.
Le renewable energy they are the first hope to mitigate the action of anthropocentric climate change. For this reason, thousands of companies around the world are working to improve the efficiency of energy production technologies from clean sources. One of them has designed a network of floating solar arrays that track the sun throughout the day.
Solar systems looking for light
SolarisFloat is a Portuguese company specializing in solar energy. He has developed Protevs, a prototype of a floating solar park whose panels move during the day to follow the Sun and make the most of its rays.
The double-sided panels rotate on two axes with mechanical sensors, allowing for greater sunlight absorption and increasing efficiency.
The idea of building islands of floating solar systems on bodies of water stems from the need to avoid soil consumption in order to obtain clean energy. Countries like Japan or Great Britain, islands that need to manage their lands intelligently, could find this solution perfect, which does not affect agriculture or reforestation.
The latest installation, in the Oostvoornse Meer lake (in the Netherlands) is covered by 180 of these mobile solar panels, with a total installed capacity of 73 kilowatts of peak power (kWp). A small amount for a voracious world like ours, but it's a sign: these solar plants are establishing themselves, and we will see more and more of them.
The advantages of floating solar systems
First, the location. The panels of these solar systems can exploit the body of water on which they are placed as a natural refrigerant, avoiding overheating too much (which reduces their efficiency).
At the same time, the reduced water temperature under the solar park discourages the growth of toxic algae, favoring the conservation of aquatic ecosystems. Finally, it reduces the evaporation of bodies of water. A study published in Science, that I link to you here, shows reductions of up to 42%.
Shall we light it?
Thomas Reindl, deputy managing director of the Singapore Solar Energy Research Institute (SERIS), is convinced by this. "Floating solar plants," he says, "is a fairly new option, but it has huge potential globally."
He and his colleagues are aware of the challenges involved in projects of this kind. However, they argue that it would be enough to cover only 10% of the surface of lakes and dams in the world to far exceed the energy generated by all the solar plants present on the mainland today.
The opportunities that such a solution offers may be the key to tackling the problems facing some regions where land and water are scarce.
It will take hard work. We need to make the production and installation costs of these solar systems increasingly accessible, and study any negative effects on ecosystems.
To date, however, they have not emerged.
