World’s largest floating offshore solar power plant construction begins

Alongside wind turbines, floating solar panels installed offshore can help increase renewable energy output.Work for the five-megawatt (MW) offshore floating solar (OFS) power plant, the world’s largest so far, has begun and will include design, construction, and showcasing the facility using a modular solution, a press release said. Solar Duck, a Netherlands-based company, is providing the plant’s technology.

With countries looking to phase out fossil fuels, solar and wind-based energy solutions are being rapidly installed. While dropping power costs from these technologies is a welcome sign, their lower energy conversion rates are problematic. Both wind and solar energy plants need large tracts of land to harness large amounts of power to effect a transition.

Landmass on the planet is limited and is already utilized for various purposes, from housing and agriculture to setting up industries. Realizing this, wind farms have already transitioned to offshore platforms where they can build bigger turbines and tap into higher-speed winds to generate greater amounts of clean energy.

It is high time for solar farms to move offshore, too.

Offshore solar farms
Just like land, inland water bodies too are crowded and limited. Covering canals with solar panels may be a good idea in water-scarce regions. But all the world’s rivers and lakes occupy just 0.2 percent of the planet. Moreover, rivers are already used for inland transportation, and installing solar panels can interfere with existing systems.

In contrast, 71 percent of the planet’s surface area is covered with water, which presents an opportunity to build an energy-harvesting apparatus using abundant sunlight. Netherlands-based SolarDuck is keen to install offshore solar farms in areas it refers to as the Sun Belt.