L R AS Published on Sunday 12 April 2020 - n° 317 - Categories:floating power plant

How do the signs behave on a turbulent lake?

A 50 kW photovoltaic installation will be installed during the summer on a relatively turbulent lake in Oostvoornse, near the port of Rotterdam. TNO's objective is to study the impact of wind and waves on floating structures, the efficiency of the panels, the damage caused by wave movements and the impact of the wind and waves on the water.

the impact of waves on light absorption. TNO has already found that the ratio between wave height and wavelength is a key factor in losses. Losses could be as high as 9% in extreme waves, 7% in high wave intensity and 3% in medium wave intensity. The use of optimizers and micro inverters on the panels could reduce these losses.

If each panel is placed on a float, and the floats follow the movement of the waves, each of them will have a different orientation towards the sun at each moment. This can lead to a loss of correspondence. They could be of the order of a few percent.

The project will be placed on a lake with class 2 waves, i.e. one metre deep during heavy storms. It is an intermediate step towards installation in the open sea and therefore with larger swells and salt water corrosion.

PV Magazine of 7 April

Editor's note If we are already experimenting on an agitated lake, it is because the analysis of the behaviour of the panels in the open sea is imminent. We need to be able to place panels on the seas or oceans so as not to occupy spaces on land.

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