FLOATING SOLAR POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

India has a huge requirement of energy demand and power crisis so renewable energy is the best and alternative for meeting future demand. Solar energy is an advantageous renewable energy resource that is clean, eco-friendly, and abundant in nature. India has a huge amount of solar potential as it has a good and fair amount of sunshine is available. The major challenge in solar energy is scarcity and the cost of land. Floating solar is the best form of solar energy which is a reliable, affordable, and sustainable future supply which solves the issue of land scarcity and cost because it is constructed over any water surface which is largely available in various parts of the country. It generates more amount of power generation because of the cooling effect of water. This technology is still in initial stages, but competitively increasing options for the new electricity generation in developing countries. This dissertation aims to review floating solar in detail by discussing different issues like different technology, components, advantages, challenges. An extensive literature review is carried out on the floating solar has been presented in this report. This study aims to calculate and compare the energy generation, performance ratio, capacity utilization factor, cost analysis, reduction in evaporation, reduction in greenhouse gases for floating solar, and compare with ground-mounted solar. The amount of generation from floating solar is estimated to be 1.5%-3% higher than ground-mounted solar. 1 MW floating solar could save 42 million liters of water from evaporation annually. The cost of electricity for floating solar is 4.1 INR/kWh. This study provides the advantages of using floating solar over ground-mounted solar in terms of more energy generation, saving of water, and higher efficiency. Floating solar provide more environmental benefits compared to ground-mounted solar.