
Following Asia’s lead, floating PV (FPV) projects are booming in Europe. Over the past two years, many European countries have also introduced relevant policies to support FPV. In 2024, Italy, the Netherlands and others have announced the start of FPV projects, with a planned installed capacity of more than 100MW. The European PV industry association, Solar Power Europe, has previously said that FPV prospects in Europe are good, and Europe is expected to become the second-largest FPV market in the world.
There is plenty of room for FPV development in Europe, with a number of FPV projects being planned and progressed. Top companies have been attracted to this field and have launched suitable products and solutions.
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FPV projects offer a wide range of benefits. Offshore FPV plants can make full use of tidal flats, islands, etc., effectively alleviating land resource shortages. In addition, offshore PV can also be integrated into the development of the marine economy to promote industry progress and transformation.
In this field, Sungrow FPV, which has been developing key technologies for offshore FPV since 2019, has a say. The company has successively carried out research into a number of key areas of technology, such as structural design, environmental load calculation, anti-corrosion, anti-fouling, anchoring system design and wave dissipation. According to Sungrow FPV, as of June 2024, the company’s FPV projects exceeded 3.4GW globally, making it the world’s first gigawatt-level FPV system supplier. Data from S&P Global shows that, with more than 260 global project application cases and over 260 patents, the company’s FPV market share has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years. PV Tech spoke to Sungrow FPV’s deputy general manager, Lei Wang, about the company’s floating PV technologies and plans for putting these into operation worldwide.

PV Tech: What products and solutions did Sungrow FPV exhibit at this year’s Insterolar Europe show? What are their characteristics?
Lei Wang: At this year’s exhibition, Sungrow FPV showcased a range of products and solutions tailored for the European market. These solutions are innovatively designed based on the actual needs of application scenarios in the European market. Considering the relatively small water surface areas overseas and the high demand for system capacity, we introduced a large-capacity array solution to improve utilisation per unit area. In response to high snow load conditions, the system solution can flexibly adjust the snow load to address problems that customers are concerned about.
Different application scenarios face severe challenges such as extreme climate and varied terrains, and have different requirements for FPV systems. Sungrow FPV takes into account the characteristics of different scenarios, and always adheres to providing stable, reliable, and technologically advanced products and system solutions to meet application requirements of all customers.
From demonstration to application
What are the representative projects that Sungrow FPV has participated in? As far as you have observed, what are the new characteristics and trends in FPV development in the past two years?
Last year, we completed the 192MWp Cirata FPV project in Indonesia, which is located on the Cirata hydropower plant reservoir in West Java Province, Indonesia. It is the first 100-meter deep-water FPV project, with a water depth of 100m, a water level variation of 18m, and a difference of 50m in underwater elevation. Cirata Reservoir has complex underwater terrain and steep underwater slopes. Sungrow FPV completes anchoring design for the entire project to maximise the use of the waters and increase the installed capacity, guaranteeing reliable and smooth project operation. As the largest FPV project in Indonesia, the Cirata project was selected as a national key strategic project, which is an important milestone for the technological development of clean energy and energy transition in Indonesia.
In recent years, the FPV market has developed rapidly, and FPV application scenarios have become increasingly diversified and complex, which challenges the “hard power” of FPV system solutions. Sungrow FPV has always relied on product strengths, technical advantages and quality services to provide its customers with the most valuable FPV system solutions.
Looking at the European market, what are the challenges and gains of Sungrow FPV? How does the company see the future of this market?
Europe has always been one of the markets where FPV is highly valued. We have always been optimistic about the PV prospects in Europe, and we have achieved very good market performance there, which has been recognised by our customers. Based on the actual application needs of the current market, the FPV system solutions exhibited this time continues to have three advantages: efficient and flexible, extremely safe, and convenient operation and maintenance. The system layout is optimised and designed in such a way that the snow load can be flexibly adjusted to be applied to various FPV scenarios. The operation and maintenance walkway adopts a highly stable ergonomic design to ensure the safety and operability of O&M.
Sungrow FPV has always insisted on promoting a localisation strategy and has established an experienced professional team locally to continuously provide our customers with high-quality product delivery and service guarantees. In the future, Sungrow FPV will continue to further promote its internationalisation strategy. Focusing on the customer, relying on its in-depth insight into market demands, supply chain and industrial chain, Sungrow FPV will work together with its partners to jointly push forward the green transformation of global energy.
Marine clean energy has received more attention in recent years and the call to move “from land to sea” in the PV industry is gradually rising. However, due to the complex environment, these projects are still full of challenges. What do you think of the prospects for offshore FPV?
Offshore FPV is a brand-new approach to ocean energy utilisation and resource development. Under the same lighting conditions, the sea surface is open and unobstructed, and the advantages of long sunshine time and high irradiance allow FPV projects more hours of light exposure.
Promoting FPV is conducive to saving land resources. It will help expand PV application scenarios and installed capacity, meet power demand in developed coastal areas and contribute to the goal of carbon reduction.
How does Sungrow FPV plan and participate in the FPV market? What attempts have been made? What experiences do you have to share?
Sungrow FPV has started research on key FPV technologies since 2019 and has carried out a number of key technical studies such as structural design, environmental load calculation, anti-corrosion, anti-fouling, anchoring system design and wave dissipation technology. At present, we are working on building a co-located wind-solar FPV demonstration project. Specially designed for the actual service environment, the project boasts a stable structure, strong adaptability and high strength. It can withstand oceanic hurricane conditions with wave height of up to 6 meters and wind speeds of 40m/s. We have innovatively developed a system anti-corrosion composite coating solution to withstand extreme conditions such as high salt spray, high humidity and high temperature.
FPV will go through a process of development from near to far. FPV starts from the relatively mild environmental conditions of coastal bays, embankments and other maritime areas to utilise fishery-PV for improved economic efficiency. Later it gradually develops towards scenarios such as wind-PV and deep-sea fishery-PV. FPV can utilise sea areas on a large scale. The effects of transformation, as well as unified planning and construction, will further improve its economy and feasibility.
How do you see the FPV market developing this year? What are the development goals or expectations for Sungrow FPV this year?
FPV is one of the main forces in the current renewable industry. Sungrow FPV will continue to implement a globalisation strategy, driving industry progress through focused innovation and helping itself grow to be a leader in the industry.