Europe's largest floating photo voltaic park might provide a serious metropolis with electrical energy

The Berlin-based renewable energy company Q Energy has €50 million euros in debt capital to complete Europe's largest floating solar park, which is scheduled to go into operation next year.

The power plant is already under construction on the site of a former quarry in the French region of Haute-Marne. Once completed, the park will consist of 134,649 floating solar panels covering an area the size of 180 football pitches. The massive 73 MW plant will meet the electricity needs of around 37,000 people, Q Energy estimates.

Floating solar parks – or “Floatovoltaics” — work similarly to their land-based counterparts, but on water. Each consists of an island of panels mounted on a floating platform and anchored to the bottom of the body of water by cables.

Floating solar systems make their big appearance

They only form one small percentage of total solar energy production, global floatovoltaic capacity has increased rapidly in recent years, from only 68 MW in 2015 above 3 GW in 2022.

Floatovoltaics offers some clear advantages over land-based photovoltaics. The cooling effect of the water can help cool the panels, Increased efficiency. By covering the surface of a reservoir or lake, floating solar panels also reduce evaporation, saving precious freshwater. But the biggest selling point is that floating solar panels don't use any land.

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From some Estimatescountries must give up up to 5% of their total land area on solar modules to fully decarbonize by 2050 – which may existing tensions with FarmersConservationists and other land users.

Floating solar panels installed on artificial reservoirs or lakes that are not used for recreational purposes could help alleviate the problem. This simply makes sense, especially for land-poor countries. It is the same logic that Wind farms displaced offshore.

Most of the growth in floating solar has occurred in the densely populated regions of East Asia. largest facility in the worldThe Dezhou Dingzhuang solar plant in China has a peak capacity of 320 MW. South Korea, on the other hand, is currently Building A floatovoltaic park that will outshine all others with a capacity of 2 GW – enough to supply around 1 million households with electricity.

Netherlands leads Europe in floating solar power plants

In Europe, the Netherlands – 20% of the country is covered by water – is by far the leader. Dutch renewable energy company GorenLeven has installed 500,000 panels on lakes in the small country. In the Netherlands, there are Europe's currently largest floating solar park, a 27.4 MW facility built by German company BayWa.

The land of bicycles, windmills and cheese is also floating solar systems in the seaThe Dutch startup Solar Duck recently installed its first pilot Offshore solar platform in the North Sea. However, waves and salt water present a number of technical challenges, which is why most floating solar projects are located on inland reservoirs. But here too, the potential is huge.

A Paper published in Nature It is estimated that covering 10% of the world's hydroelectric power stations with floating solar panels could generate 4,000 GW of electricity by 2022. That's equivalent to all fossil-fuel power stations in operation worldwide.

The floating solar market is appreciated at $4 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $54 billion by 2032. In addition, numerous other projects are currently underway in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and Greece. With such rapid growth Q Energy's floating solar park is unlikely to retain its title as Europe's largest for much longer.