Floating Solar Panels To Roll Out In September 2011

The non conventional energy resources are the only ones available abundantly in the nature and that too free of cost. Harvesting these is the best thing man can do today. One of the affluent sources is Sunlight. Harvesting this is a good idea but the problem is that we have a space crunch. World is moving towards population explosion so we also need to keep track of how judiciously we use the space.

The problem with the installation of conventional panels was that they took a lot of space. But now, this problem is taken care of with the advent of “floating solar panel.” The panels can be installed over the water reservoirs for that matter where ample sunlight is available. This technology is developed by Fanco – Israeli firm. Basically, it is a partnership of Solar Synergy from Israel and EDF group from FRANCE. The project is named as the AQUASUN. The designing of the system is over in March 2010 and the team is working on making a prototype. The technology will be implemented by September 2011 as claimed by the firm. These panels will be tested at Cadarache in the south east of France. This is a favourable place because it is near the French electric grid and water surface is also available to mount the panels.

Panels would be made to work for a period of nine months. Within this time the system performance will be checked for seasonal changes and varying water levels. It is stipulated by the research team that they will have all the information concerned to the panels by June 2012 so that they can enter into the market. Moreover, the panels are not installed on natural water sources such as lakes or oceans. These are installed on the large industrial reservoirs already in use. This will not affect any natural land scapes. This system employs a cooling system altogether different from the conventional one by using the same water on which it is installed. This makes it easy for us to use silicon solar cells. With the new system we can cool these cells as these experience problems when overheated. This makes the system cheap but efficient ensuring reliability and cost reduction.

Another astonishing feature is that we can install identical modules one over the other to get the desired power rating. Each module produces 200 kW of power on an average basis reliably. The main point to mention is that it can act as a breathing surface i.e oxygen can pass through it so that the oxygen level in the water is maintained and the underwater lives are secure.

This project indeed required deep thinking as to whether there would be any harmful effects on the environment and so on. This is very efficiently taken care of by the research team of the group.