Floating Offshore Photovoltaics across Geographies: An Enhanced Model of Water Cooling

Abdulhadi Ayyad; Sara Golroodbari; Wilfried van Sark

doi:10.3390/en17051131

Floating Offshore Photovoltaics across Geographies: An Enhanced Model of Water Cooling

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Solar photovoltaics (PV) continues to grow rapidly across the world and now accounts for a very considerable proportion of all non-fossil-fuel electricity. With the continuing urgency of greenhouse gas abatement, the growth of solar PV is inevitable. Competition with other land uses and the desire to optimize the efficiency of the panels by making use of water cooling are compelling arguments for offshore floating PV (OFPV), a trend that could also benefit from the existing infrastructure recently built for offshore wind farms. Building on our earlier work, we present a larger dataset (n = 82) located around the globe to assess global yield (dis)advantages while also accounting for a modified form of water cooling of the offshore panels. Using our results regarding the Köppen–Geiger (KG) classification system and using a statistical learning method, we demonstrate that the KG climate classification system has limited validity in predicting the likely gains from OFPV. Finally, we also explore a small subset of sites to demonstrate that economics, alongside geography and technology, impacts the feasibility of locating PV panels offshore.

Original language	English
Article number	1131
Pages (from-to)	1-24
Number of pages	24
Journal	Energies
Volume	17
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/en17051131
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.

Funding

This work is partly financially supported by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) within the framework of the Dutch Topsector Energy (projects Comparative assessment of PV at Sea versus PV on Land, CSEALAND, and North Sea Two, NS2).

Funders
Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 15 Life on Land

Keywords

K-means methods
climate classification
energy economics
solar PV

Access to Document

10.3390/en17051131Licence: CC BY

energies-17-01131Final published version, 1.33 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Floating Offshore Photovoltaics across Geographies: An Enhanced Model of Water Cooling",

abstract = "Solar photovoltaics (PV) continues to grow rapidly across the world and now accounts for a very considerable proportion of all non-fossil-fuel electricity. With the continuing urgency of greenhouse gas abatement, the growth of solar PV is inevitable. Competition with other land uses and the desire to optimize the efficiency of the panels by making use of water cooling are compelling arguments for offshore floating PV (OFPV), a trend that could also benefit from the existing infrastructure recently built for offshore wind farms. Building on our earlier work, we present a larger dataset (n = 82) located around the globe to assess global yield (dis)advantages while also accounting for a modified form of water cooling of the offshore panels. Using our results regarding the K{\"o}ppen–Geiger (KG) classification system and using a statistical learning method, we demonstrate that the KG climate classification system has limited validity in predicting the likely gains from OFPV. Finally, we also explore a small subset of sites to demonstrate that economics, alongside geography and technology, impacts the feasibility of locating PV panels offshore.",

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doi = "10.3390/en17051131",

language = "English",

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T2 - An Enhanced Model of Water Cooling

AU - Ayyad, Abdulhadi

AU - Golroodbari, Sara

AU - Sark, Wilfried van

PY - 2024/3/1

Y1 - 2024/3/1

N2 - Solar photovoltaics (PV) continues to grow rapidly across the world and now accounts for a very considerable proportion of all non-fossil-fuel electricity. With the continuing urgency of greenhouse gas abatement, the growth of solar PV is inevitable. Competition with other land uses and the desire to optimize the efficiency of the panels by making use of water cooling are compelling arguments for offshore floating PV (OFPV), a trend that could also benefit from the existing infrastructure recently built for offshore wind farms. Building on our earlier work, we present a larger dataset (n = 82) located around the globe to assess global yield (dis)advantages while also accounting for a modified form of water cooling of the offshore panels. Using our results regarding the Köppen–Geiger (KG) classification system and using a statistical learning method, we demonstrate that the KG climate classification system has limited validity in predicting the likely gains from OFPV. Finally, we also explore a small subset of sites to demonstrate that economics, alongside geography and technology, impacts the feasibility of locating PV panels offshore.

AB - Solar photovoltaics (PV) continues to grow rapidly across the world and now accounts for a very considerable proportion of all non-fossil-fuel electricity. With the continuing urgency of greenhouse gas abatement, the growth of solar PV is inevitable. Competition with other land uses and the desire to optimize the efficiency of the panels by making use of water cooling are compelling arguments for offshore floating PV (OFPV), a trend that could also benefit from the existing infrastructure recently built for offshore wind farms. Building on our earlier work, we present a larger dataset (n = 82) located around the globe to assess global yield (dis)advantages while also accounting for a modified form of water cooling of the offshore panels. Using our results regarding the Köppen–Geiger (KG) classification system and using a statistical learning method, we demonstrate that the KG climate classification system has limited validity in predicting the likely gains from OFPV. Finally, we also explore a small subset of sites to demonstrate that economics, alongside geography and technology, impacts the feasibility of locating PV panels offshore.

KW - K-means methods

KW - climate classification

KW - energy economics

KW - solar PV

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85187484917

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DO - 10.3390/en17051131

M3 - Article

SN - 1996-1073

VL - 17

SP - 1

EP - 24

JO - Energies

JF - Energies

IS - 5

M1 - 1131

ER -

Floating Offshore Photovoltaics across Geographies: An Enhanced Model of Water Cooling

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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