Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Market Report

Floating solar photovoltaic (PV) installations open up new opportunities for scaling up solar generating capacity, especially in countries with high population density and competing uses for available land.

They have certain advantages over land-based systems, including utilization of existing electricity transmission infrastructure at hydropower sites, close proximity to demand centers (in the case of water supply reservoirs), and improved energy yield thanks to the cooling effects of water and the decreased presence of dust.

The exact magnitude of these performance advantages has yet to be confirmed by larger installations, across multiple geographies, and over time, but in many cases they may outweigh any increase in capital cost.