Comments on: Buoyant racking turns water into an ideal solar site The floats, mooring and anchors of floating solar.

By: John Lloyd

John Lloyd — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 19:07:01 +0000

I’ve seen similar floating solar at wineries here in Northern California but nothing that meets these standards. I am impressed with the system here and think it would serve the winery industry well. The growers want solar but have so little room with the grapes everywhere and this on their ponds would make it possible to save money a lot of utility power.

By: Don Thomas

Don Thomas — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 03:58:45 +0000

Floating arrays don’t sound very practical for many reasons, snow being one you’ve mentioned.
It seems a lot more practical to put such solar arrays on top of the many warehouses now taking so much land out of useful agricultural production, wildlife and butterfly habitat, ground water absorption, carbon sequestration, etc., and causing more water runoff as well as air pollution from so many trucks. Also, they use large amounts of energy with 24 hour lighting, HVAC, etc.

By: Solarman

Solarman — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 21:28:31 +0000

“U.S. installation requirements will differ from international rules, but the structural components holding the panels in place are the same, and they are tested to withstand the elements of these marine environments. In fact, water bodies provide benefits to sited solar arrays, including built-in temperature control.”

In my travels, I believe it was Prescott Arizona that has a small Sanitation plant that uses floating “air pumps” mounted on a floating pontoon like frame with solar PV panels attached, used in the aeration/percolation ponds. The problem is right now winter brings snow storms and the snow collects on the panels, so it looks like the floating system is used only during the summer months. The California idea of putting solar PV panels over large water conveyance projects already in place sounds great at first blush, when one considers the remoteness of some legs of the canal run, it is what lawyers call an “attractive nuisance” and a perfect spot(s) for vandalism and theft. Solar PV and even smart ESS is best installed on the buildings using the generated energy. Right now pretty much World wide, energy is an upside down pyramid proposition more like an upside down top. With distributred solar PV and ESS at residential sites and small businesses one can use the “end users” as a broad base of the pyramid, with energy demands flowing from the base to the transmission grid at the top, OR much less energy flowing from the top down.

By: Green Ridge Solar

Green Ridge Solar — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 15:53:06 +0000

Floating solar panels are such a great idea! There is so much open space on ponds, lakes, reservoirs, canals, and other bodies of water that could be put to use for energy generation. Plus, it can also help reduce evaporation, which is crucial in drought-stricken and drought-prone regions.