Very soon arrays of solar panels of an unusual design will be created in the North Sea. They will “soar” above the surface of the water at a height of several meters, swaying on the waves “like a living carpet.”
The Merganser pilot project with a peak power of 0.5 megawatts is to be implemented in the waters of the North Sea, near the Belgian Ostend – it will be the first in the portfolio of the Dutch-Norwegian company SolarDuck. The project should accelerate the commercialization of the promising technology of floating offshore solar power plants. It is expected that the first such solar power plants can be put into operation as early as next year.
Going forward, SolarDuck developments are expected to form the basis of the massive Hollandse Kust West offshore wind farm demonstration project currently being tendered by German energy company RWE.
The very idea of integrating offshore floating solar panels into an offshore wind farm looks quite interesting, because such a technology will allow the efficient use of ocean space for energy production. Moreover, a consortium, a joint venture between Eneco and Shell, is already working on the Hollandse Kust (noord) wind farm in the North Sea, planning to use this combined technology .
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At the same time, the Portuguese energy company EDP has already opened a 5 MW floating solar park on Lake Alqueva this month. It consists of almost 12,000 photovoltaic panels and is now “the largest solar power plant in Europe.” As part of the project, EDP has combined a solar power plant with a hydroelectric plant built on a dam, and plans to add battery storage in the future to compensate for the discrepancy between renewable energy generation and consumption schedules.
All these projects are united by a “hybrid” model, which combines the advantages of various renewable energy technologies for maximum benefit. According to EDP CEO Miguel Stilwell de Andrade, this approach is one of the logical ways to further develop renewable energy, as it optimizes resources and allows companies to produce cheaper energy.
