floating solar

The contract for the world’s first offshore floating solar farm has been awarded to offshore specialist Oceans of Energy for a project in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands.

Building on the successes of floating PV projects installed on lakes and dams globally, offshore installations are an emerging opportunity for developers, potentially when co-located with wind farms. George Heynes explores how the industry can move beyond pilot projects to large-scale, commercially viable installations, detailing the challenges and opportunities ahead.

The projects consist of a 90MW floating solar project in Madhya Pradesh and a 100MW utility-scale solar PV project to be built in Gujarat

The China Energy Engineering Corporation has reportedly proposed to build a 1GW floating solar installation in Zimbabwe, at the Kariba Dam on the Zambizi river.

Tractebel – a subsidiary of French utility Engie – has developed a new offshore floating solar technology in partnership with offshore energy specialists DEME and maritime infrastructure firm Jan De Nul.

Floating PV (FPV) developer Sungrow FPV will supply floating systems to a 192MW project in Indonesia, which it has said will be the largest floating installation in the country.

Indian government-owned NTPC Renewable Energy has launched a bidding process seeking 310MW of floating and ground-mounted solar PV in India.

Renewables company BayWa r.e. has completed the construction of a 24.5MW floating solar PV (FPV) plant in Grafenwörth, Austria.

Spanish water company Miya has acquired a minority stake in Xfloat, the Israeli floating PV tech developer.