Urban Cities Looking to Floating Solar Panels for Alternative Energy Generation

In August 2020, Singapore’s National Water Agency PUB and Sembcorp Floating Solar Singapore—a unit of Sembcorp Industries—announced the commencement of the construction of a floating solar power plant at the Tengeh Reservoir that is capable of generating 60 megawatts of peak power (MWp). With this build being one of the world’s largest inland floating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, it will not only help reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and therefore carbon emissions, but also aid in a more sustainable future, a key aim of Singapore’s climate resilience plans.

This major scale solar PV system at Tengeh Reservoir is the first of its kind in the region and will enable Singapore to integrate green technology into its water treatment operations. Once the project commences its full commercial operations in 2021, it will enable the PUB to offset 7% of its annual energy needs and will be sufficient to power PUB’s local water treatment plants. The system will include double-glass PV modules to ensure its durability in the country’s wet and humid environment. These modules will be supported by certified food-grade quality High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) floats, which are UV-resistant to prevent degradation from the intense sunlight exposure. To provide further optimization to the performance and reliability of its operations, a digital monitoring platform is used that consists of safety cameras, real-time video monitoring, dashboards, and alerts. This platform enables efficient tracking of environmental factors—wind speed, solar irradiation, and ambient temperature—and detects abnormalities in the form of potential overheating and fire hazards to allow for preemptive rectification.

Due to Singapore’s urban landscape and limited land, the city-state faces challenges in large-scale solar panel deployments despite solar energy being its most feasible renewable energy source given its proximity to the equator. The availability of large water bodies and reservoirs creates an alternative avenue for electricity generation, one that has been proven to have a minimal impact on water quality and biodiversity.

As cities around the world become more developed and urbanized, valuable land is continually becoming scarce. Floating solar is therefore a crucial solution because it does not require the use of land and instead can be installed on any water bodies such as reservoirs, lakes, and river tributaries. Another significant benefit is that as compared to traditional land-based solar panels, floating solar panels takes advantage of the cooling effect exerted by water bodies, which, according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), improves the performance by 5% to 10%. This will enable considerable cost savings in addition to reducing evaporation and algae counts, and as a result improvement to water quality. Currently, hydropower reservoirs alone cover more than 250,000 square kilometers globally, an area that could house enough floating solar volume to generate 2.5 times the electricity produced by the total hydropower capacity. Therefore, the potential results from pairing of hydropower with floating solar panels looks extremely promising.

According to a report from the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), it suggests that Asia is currently leading European nations in the deployment of floating solar farms, and it is expected that floating solar power plants will generate around 900% more electricity across the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from Singapore, countries like Thailand have begun plans for further installation and development of floating solar plants. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand kicked off its 45 MWp floating solar project on the Sirindhorn Dam at the beginning of the year and is also planning a second project with a capacity of 24 MWp on the Ubol Ratana Dam. Other ASEAN countries like Malaysia and Vietnam have shown similar strides in their efforts to push for more floating solar farms to be built and deployed. Outside of Asia, the Netherlands houses Europe’s largest floating solar project, a 27.4 MWp Bomhofsplas project in the city of Zwolle.

According to the ABI Research market data IoT Market Tracker—Worldwide, it is forecasted that the global number of IoT connections will reach 20.2 billion in 2025, from 6.6 billion in 2020, growing at a 5-year CAGR of 61%. With these connections consuming more energy, coupled with increasing population growth and urbanization, and therefore growing land scarcity, more alternative sources of energy and electricity generation will be required.

As land for new renewable energy developments becomes increasing scarce, building floating solar farms will be an ideal alternative for governments because they can make use of available water bodies to aid in offsetting electricity consumption. However, floating solar panels are still relatively new, accounting for less than 0.5% of total solar photovoltaic installations globally, according to the IFC. In addition, they require an increase of 20% to 25% in costs, attributed to the floating structures, monitoring systems, and other developmental costs. As such, it is important for the technology to drive down, with the help of public and private organizations, the costs and technical challenges involved in implementing this solution. Floating solar panels will not be the savior for climate change but will play a key role in generating “green” energy solutions.