The Evolution Of The US Floating Solar Industry

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Activity in the floating solar field has been ratcheting up, motivated in part by the benefits of situating solar panels over water instead of using space on land. The idea is not conflict-free, though. Floating solar proposals can be stymied by competition from recreation and habitat conservation priorities, among other obstacles. Still, new opportunities for ecology-first site selection are emerging as the technology improves and the knowledge base grows.

From Floating Docks To Floating Solar

The Florida-based firm AccuSolar is among the stakeholders of interest to surface on the CleanTechnica radar in recent months. If the name rings a bell, you may be thinking of an ambitious, 391-megawatt floating solar project taking shape in Texas, with an assist from AccuSolar. The company was founded by CEO Jason Harrison, building on his experience with his family’s floating dock company, AccuDock.

Long before AccuSolar launched, AccuDock already had a hand in the floating solar business. The company provided the floaters for the nation’s first ever “floatovoltaic” project, located on an irrigation pond at a Napa Valley winery in California. The system went live back in 2009, and AccuDock eventually went on to introduce AccuSolar in 2022.

In a recent conversation with CleanTechnica, Harrison recounted how AccuSolar took shape after the Napa Valley project. “We didn’t think anything of it at the time. We sent them the floats and moved on,” Harrison said. “Then we started looking at what floating solar has done globally. Coming from our background of producing structures that float, we can do better.”

Many More Opportunities For Floating Solar

Based on AccuDock’s track record of more than 8,000 installations, Harrison told CleanTechnica that reservoirs and commercial irrigation ponds are just some of the available opportunities for floating solar projects.

Stormwater retention sites and flood zones are two examples. “The floats will be on dry ground most of the time, but when it rains and the water collects, the floats will then float,” Harrison explained. “We have experience in putting things in rivers via AccuDock, and flood zones could be a huge application.”

Irrigation canals, residential developments that have water features, and industrial sites are three other areas of potential expansion. “It makes a lot of sense when you can use unusable land,” Harrison emphasizes. “It’s a perfect example of why floating solar makes sense and will be self-sustaining.”

Next Steps For The US Floating Solar Industry

Leveraging the experience, supply chains, and workforce of existing water-based industries is one pathway for growth in the US floating solar industry. Improvements in land-based solar technologies are also adding to the momentum.

In particular, new improvements in solar conversion efficiency can enable floating solar developers to squeeze the same — or even more — kilowatts from fewer solar panels, an important consideration when sites are shared with recreation or habitat users.

The solar trackers commonly used for boosting the efficiency of land-based systems are also beginning to appear in floating arrays. The US-based firm Noria, for example, has been pilot-testing its “AquaPhi” tracking system at multiple sites in the U.S.

Developments like these will be all the more critical as the nation’s electricity demand grows. Back in 2018, for example, an initial study by the US Department of Energy found that installing solar panels on a selected pool of 24,000 human-made water bodies in the US could meet about than 10 percent of US electricity demand, a figure that would otherwise require more than 5 million acres (2.41 million hectares) of land. Electricity demand has risen since then, but so has the conversion efficiency of solar arrays.

More recently, researchers focused on a smaller group of reservoirs owned or regulated by the federal government. They found a technical potential of 1,475 terawatts of electricity annually, enough to power 100 million homes. If only a small fraction of that amount is actually usable, it would still result in a substantial addition to the US solar portfolio.

Sharing The Habitat

As the US floating solar industry grows, keep an eye out for new research that helps guide site selection in a sustainable direction. As Harrison indicates, avoiding habitat conflicts altogether is possible in some cases, particularly among industrial applications.

In other cases, the conflicts can be minimized by careful site selection. At Cornell University, for example, a recent assessment of 16,000 sites along the Atlantic Flyway bird migration route yielded an interesting conclusion. While cautioning that smaller bodies of water pose a higher risk of bird interactions, their study indicates that larger sites with higher energy potential are not as likely to come into conflict.

“Based on our findings, it could be possible to reduce risk to birds via ecologically informed siting, and that might not instill a reduction in energy production,” explains Steven Grodsky, assistant professor at Cornell.

Researchers have also advised that solar developers treat the aquatic environment itself on a case by case basis. In general, solar panels can have a beneficial cooling effect on aquatic life, helping to prevent algae blooms while reducing evaporation. However, a research team at Oregon State University advises that water conditions can vary greatly. “Different reservoirs are going to respond differently,” notes the lead author of the study, Evan Bredeweg.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for designing these systems. It’s ecology — it’s messy,” Bredeweg adds.

As for the future, on January 30 the global research firm DataM Intelligence summarized floating solar activity in the US, taking note of “renewed interest in maximizing reservoir surfaces for clean energy as part of broader solar capacity build‐outs.”

That’s quite an optimistic observation, considering the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy this year. Still, pocket books trump policy in the case of solar power, which has emerged as the quickest, and most economical, way to introduce new kilowatts into the nation’s energy profile. Floating solar provides the additional benefits of conserving land and adding value to underused sites, to boot.

Photo: The Florida firm AccuSolar is among the stakeholders supporting forward movement in the US floating solar industry, despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy (cropped, courtesy of Accusolar).