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Climate change has become a global issue and is predicted to impact less-developed regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, severely. Innovative, sustainable renewable energy systems are essential to mitigate climate change’s effects and unlock the region’s potential, especially with the increasing energy demands and population growth. The region relies heavily on fossil fuels, which calls for urgent action towards energy security and expansion. Hybrid floating solar photovoltaic-hydropower (FPV-HEP) technology has emerged as a cost-effective and transformative solution to accelerate the low-carbon energy transition in sub-Saharan Africa. The technology combines solar panels with existing hydropower infrastructure, ensuring energy security while reducing carbon emissions. This technology offers several benefits over conventional ground-mounted solar systems, including efficient land utilization, energy generation, and water conservation. However, its adoption remains challenging due to technical complexities and evolving regulatory frameworks. Despite these challenges, Nigerian energy professionals have preferred renewable alternatives, mainly distributed solar PV and FPV-HEP plants. This collective embrace of FPV and renewables reflects a growing understanding of their critical role in mitigating climate change through sustainable energy practices. This research aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and assist policymakers in making informed decisions on adopting this technology. It also stimulates further research on this topic, offering a new potential solution to the ever-increasing demand for green energy in the region to meet their sustainable development needs.

Solar cells have been among the first such clean energy groups that have been used, talked about, and adopted extensively in many areas. One drawback of using solar cells for energy supply not only in households but also in large cities is the space needed as well as usually requiring a flat area. For these reasons, the construction of solar farms over water is a popular concept and continues to be of interest in Thailand and the rest of the world. This research provided a case study of implementing large-scale solar cells in Southeast Asia where unexpected typhoons are common during the monsoon season. This can be addressed by binding the solar panels together to make a large platform that can remain intact in the water under various conditions. Engineers need to be confident that such binding will be safe enough to ensure the solar floating platform has no movement which may cause unexpected damage. This study developed and evaluated solar panel traction with an arrangement of 9 x 28 and 28 x 9 panels under severe wind conditions of 120 kilometers per hour (33.33 meters per second) which is equivalent to typhoons in the region. The evaluation used empirical and numerical models, and wind-tunnel testing. The resultant equation was: D (N, M) = 2075.8 N0.6532 M0.9052 and D = Kv (V) 2075.8 N0.6532 M0.9052 where N and M are the numbers of platforms in columns and rows, respectively, Kv (V) = (0.019564618+0.007704667V)/(1-0.0004656279V), and V is the wind speed (km/h). The investigation found that the predicted traction results using the derived equations was in good agreement with wind-tunnel testing for a proposed platform.

Solar energy is a natural source of energy and is tremendously abundant. The concept of floating solar is to fulfil and to support the existing energy supply in order to enhance the human life. The floating solar exploits the massive availability of ocean region and the severe unavailability of land. The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the potential of floating solar to be deployed in coastal or infield in Malaysia. It was predicted that such system could generate around 14,530 MWh per annum in Malaysia. It can be concluded that floating solar could be one of the most important ocean structures in the future because it is reliable, flexible and has virtually low cost production comparing with other ocean structures

The development of floating photovoltaic systems (FPV) for coastal and offshore locations requires a solid understanding of a design’s hydrodynamic performance through reliable methods. This study aims to extend insights into the hydrodynamic behavior of a superficial multi-body FPV system in mild and harsh wave conditions through basin tests at scale 1:10, with specific interest in the performance of hinges that interconnect the PV panels. Particular effort is put into correctly scaling the elasticity of the flexible hinges that interconnect the PV modules. Tests of a 5 × 3 FPV matrix are performed, with and without shelter, by external floating breakwater (FBW). The results show that the PV modules move horizontally in the same phase when the wave length exceeds the length of the FPV system, but shorter waves result in relative motions between modules and, for harsh seas, in hinge buckling. Relative motions suggest that axial loads are highest for the hinges that connect the center modules in the system and for normal wave incidence, while shear loads are highest on the outward hinges and for oblique incidence. The FBW reduces hinge loads as it attenuates the high-frequency wave energy that largely drives relative motions between PV modules.

The world is transitioning towards a net zero emissions future and solar energy is at the forefront of the transition. The land use requirements to install solar farms present a barrier for the industry as population density increases and land prices rise. Floating photovoltaics (FPV) addresses this issue by installing solar photovoltaics (PV) on bodies of water. Globally, installed FPV is increasing and becoming a viable option for many countries. A 1% coverage of global reservoirs with FPV would have a potential capacity of 404GWp benign power production. There are numerous advantages to FPV compared to ground mounted PV (GPV), which are discussed in this review. The major gap in research is the impact FPV has on water quality and living organisms in the bodies of water. This review paper examines the most recent research around FPV, analyzing the benefits, downfalls, and future. The review provides more insight into FPV in terms of varying water bodies that can be used, system efficiency, global potential, and potential for coupling FPV with other technologies.

Energy generation from renewable sources is a global trend due to the carbon emissions generated by fossil fuels, which cause serious harm to the ecosystem. As per the long-term goals of the ASEAN countries, the Malaysian government established a target of 31% renewable energy generation by 2025 to facilitate ongoing carbon emission reductions. To reach the goal, a large-scale solar auction is one of the most impactful initiatives among the four potential strategies taken by the government. To assist the Malaysian government’s large-scale solar policy as detailed in the national renewable energy roadmap, this article investigated the techno-economic and feasibility aspects of a 10 MW floating solar PV system at UMP Lake. The PVsyst 7.3 software was used to develop and compute energy production and loss estimation. The plant is anticipated to produce 17,960 MWh of energy annually at a levelized cost of energy of USD 0.052/kWh. The facility requires USD 8.94 million in capital costs that would be recovered within a payback period of 9.5 years from the date of operation. The plant is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 11,135.2 tons annually. The proposed facility would ensure optimal usage of UMP Lake and contribute to the Malaysian government’s efforts toward sustainable growth.

Offshore solar emergence is driven by a lack of available land and the immense decarbonisation targets. It is a promising area of solar photovoltaic application, with multiple benefits when co-located with offshore wind, and with almost unlimited potential for nations living close to the sea. Research to understand the environmental implications of offshore solar must be carried out in parallel with the realization of the first pilot demonstrations. Such pilots provide important opportunities to learn to collect field data that can be used to verify untested assumptions about possible negative and positive impacts on the marine ecosystem and serve as input data for models that can forecast the effects of much larger-scale offshore solar. This paper reports on (1) the monitoring methods and first results of water quality parameters collected underneath a small (50 kWp and 400 m2) floating solar farm and at a reference location in the open sea; (2) observations of birds on top of the floating solar platforms and (3) biogeochemistry characteristics of the seabed around the solar farm. Both the water quality and the seabed characteristics studied here did not show a clear trend or deviation from normal conditions. The observations of birds on the floating platform were first-of-its-kind; no comparison is made to other floating infrastructure or other locations. Useful insights were gathered with respect to monitoring approaches around floating solar structures in high wave conditions.

The development of novel solar power technologies is regarded as one of the essential solutions to meeting the world’s rising energy demand. Floating photovoltaic panels (FPV) have several advantages over land-based installations, including faster deployment, lower maintenance costs, and increased efficiency. Romania is considered a country with enormous solar energy potential, which is one of the most exploited sectors of the renewable energy sector. With this in mind, the purpose of this work is to assess the energetic potential provided by the sun, taking into account three lakes in Romania’s east and extending to the west of the Black Sea. In this context, we examine the hourly distribution of solar radiation for the year 2021. The solar radiation data were extracted using the ERA5 database, as well as data collected in situ near them. Following this research, we discovered that all of the chosen locations have a high energetic potential and could be used as locations for the exploitation of solar energy, thereby avoiding the use of land that could be used for agricultural purposes in these areas. We also noticed that there are minor differences between the solar radiation values obtained from the ERA5 database and the measured ones.

Floating solar energy is an industry with great potential. As the industry matures, floating solar farms are considered in more challenging environments, where the presence of waves must be accounted for in mismatch studies and fatigue and mechanical considerations regarding electrical cables and mooring lines. Computational modelling of floating solar islands is now a critical step. The representation of such islands on industry-validated software is very complex, as it includes a large number of elements, each interacting with its neighbours. This study focuses on conditions with small waves (amplitude of <1 m) that are relevant to sheltered areas where generic float technologies can be utilized. A multi-body island composed of 3 × 3 floats is modelled in OrcaFlex. A solution to model the kinematic constraint chain between floats is presented. Three different modelling solutions are compared in terms of results and computation time. The most accurate model includes a multi-body computation of float responses in a potential flow solver (OrcaWave). However, solving the equations for a single float and applying the results to each float individually also gives accurate results and reduces the computation time by a factor of 3. These results represent a basis for further works in which larger and more realistic floating islands can be modelled.

Ko, D.; Jung, J.-S.; Lee, B.W., and Yoon, J.-S., 2023. Hydraulic experiment on the effect of wave reduction due to installation of marine solar power plants. In: Lee, J.L.; Lee, H.; Min, B.I.; Chang, J.-I.; Cho, G.T.; Yoon, J.-S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Coastal and Marine Management. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 116, pp. 11-15. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. A floating solar power plant is a renewable hybrid facility that combines solar energy and coastal technology, and there has recently been an increased need for solar energy generation to respond to climate change. Solar power generation projects using floats are currently being promoted in dams, reservoirs, and coastal areas, mainly in urban areas with high population densities. Floating solar power has the advantage of achieving higher efficiency than land-based solar power on the surface, where a cooling effect occurs due to the characteristics of the module element. However, when installed in coastal areas, it is exposed to environments such as high waves and wind speeds compared to a reservoir, so it is necessary to consider the behavior of floating solar power plants for offshore environmental factors at the design stage. This study quantitatively analyzed the wave reduction effect of concrete and Poly-Ethylene (PE) type floating breakwaters through hydraulic experiments conducted at the Rural Research Institute in Korea Rural Community Corporation. The model for the hydraulic experiment was produced in a 1/12 scale by the Froude similarity law. The results showed that the average transmission coefficient of waves on the concrete floating breakwater was 0.6 whereas that of waves on the PE was 0.96, indicating that the performance of the concrete floating breakwater was more excellent than the PE type. In general, floating breakwaters have a good effect of wave reduction when the draft depth is greater than the water depth, so it is judged that the wave reduction effect will occur when a PE type breakwater with a large draft is applied or when installed in low water depth conditions.