Floating Solar Panel Industry

Overview

Global Floating Solar Panel Industry was valued at USD 163.20 Million in the year 2017. Global Floating Solar Panel Industry is further projected to grow at a CAGR of 35.42% from 2017 to reach USD 1847.69 Million by the year 2025. Asia Pacific region holds the highest Industry share in 2017 and Asia Pacific Industry is considered as the fastest growing Industry in the forecasted period. At country level China, Japan and India hold the highest Industry share in 2016 and it is projected to grow at a strongly in the coming years.

Major market players- in Floating Solar Panel Industry are Solaris Synergy, Sharp Corporation, Trina Solar, Yingli Solar, Pristine Sun LLC, Sino Group, KYOCERA Corporation, ITOCHU Corporation, Hanwha Group, Wuxi Suntech Power Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, JA SOLAR Co. Ltd. also other 12 companies detailed information in provided in research report.

Floating solar photovoltaic (PV) installations open up new opportunities for scaling up solar generating capacity, especially in countries with high population density and competing uses for available land. They have certain advantages over land-based systems, including utilization of existing electricity transmission infrastructure at hydropower sites, close proximity to demand centers (in the case of water supply reservoirs), and improved energy yield thanks to the cooling effects of water and the decreased presence of dust. The exact magnitude of these performance advantages has yet to be confirmed by larger installations, across multiple geographies, and over time, but in many cases they may outweigh any increase in capital cost.

SWOT

Strength: Low operation and maintenance cost Rising need for renewable energy

Weakness: Expensive and delicate

Opportunities: Decrease of evaporation

Threats: The availability of solar radiation can differ depending on location

Technological Features

• No land occupancy: the main advantage of floating PV plants is that they do not take up any land, except the limited surfaces necessary for electric cabinet and grid connections. Their price is comparable with land based plants, but they provide a good way to avoid Land consumption.
  
• Installation and decommissioning: floating PV plants are more compact than land-based plants, their management is simpler and their construction and decommissioning straightforward. The main point is that no fixed structures exist like the foundations used for a land-based plant so their installation can be totally reversible.
• Water saving and water quality: the partial coverage of basins can reduce the water evaporation. This result depends on climate conditions and on the percentage of the covered surface. In arid climates such as Australia this is an important advantage since about 80% of the evaporation of the covered surface is saved and this means more than 20,000 m3/year/ha. This is a very useful feature if the basin is used for irrigation purposes.

Industry by type and location

The Global Solar Floating Panel is segmented by product type, by connectivity, by location, and by region in the forecasted period. The major shares of the Industry come from Stationary in Global Floating Solar Panel Industry. On the other hand, On-Grid type for this Industry is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the year 2018-2025.

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By Product Type Stationary Floating Solar Panels Tracking Floating Solar Panels By Connectivity On Grid Floating Solar Panel Off-Grid Floating Solar Panel By Location On-Shore Floating Solar Panel Off-Shore Floating Solar Panel

By Region North America • USA • Canada Europe • Germany • U.K. • France • Italy • Rest of Europe APAC • China • India • Japan • Rest of Asia-Pacific RoW • Latin America • Middle East & Africa

Market Opportunities

Potential

• theoretical potential: a terawatt scale, purely from the perspective of the available surface area = more than 400,000 square kilometers (km2) of man-made reservoirs in the world
• There are individual dams on each continent that could theoretically accommodate hundreds of mega-watts or, in some cases, gigawatts of floating solar installations.

Capital costs

• Capital costs of floating PV are still slightly higher or comparable to those of ground-mounted PV, in 2018 generally ranging between USD 0.8–1.2 per Wp depending on location.
• However, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for a generic 50 MW floating PV system does not differ significantly from that of a ground-mounted system.

Challenges

• lack of a robust track record;
• uncertainty surrounding costs;
• uncertainty about predicting environmental impact;
• and the technical complexity of designing, building, and operating on and in water (especially electrical safety, anchoring and mooring issues, and operation and maintenance).
• lack of clarity on licensing/permitting (especially concerning water rights and environmental impact assessment);
• difficulties in selecting qualified suppliers and contractors;
• difficulties in designing insurance policies that include liabilities for potential damage of the hydro plant;
• and uncertainties about the adequacy of warranties of the performance or reliability of critical components.

In most countries, the policy and regulatory framework needs to be adjusted.

World Bank planed free publications

Publications and tools planned for the Where Sun Meets Water series are:

• A floating solar market report
• A floating solar handbook for practitioners
• Global mapping of floating solar potential (a geo-spatial tool)
• Proposed technical designs and project structuring for hydro-connected solar

Further Information

• Floating solar - Wikipedia
  
• Publication - Where Sun Meets Water - Floating Solar Market Report
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• Solar Energy Reduces Costs on Farms in Brazil