Session: 09-04-04: Floating Solar Energy

Paper Number: 101868

101868 - Potential Root Causes for Failures in Floating Pv Systems 

To mitigate climate change and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, the adoption of renewable energy has grown significantly in the last decade. Solar energy as one of the major renewable resources is taking up more and more share of green energy in the world. However, one problem of deploying large-scale photovoltaic (PV) system is the required land usage, especially for the countries with land scarcity and high population density. To overcome this issue, floating PV (FPV) systems have emerged as an interesting option. It has been more than 15 years since the first FPV system was installed in Aichi, Japan. Since then, different FPV technologies have been developed. Despite their potential advantages, many issues arise due to the harsher environmental conditions and the more complex configuration of FPV system compared to conventional ground-mounted installations. This paper aims to conduct an analysis of potential root causes for failures in FPV systems during the operation and maintenance, which is based on FPV systems monitored by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) and other literature sources. Besides, an introduction of the development of FPV system and a review of current float technologies are also presented. Finally, a summary of the challenges and an outlook of the opportunities for the deployment of FPV systems is provided.

Presenting Author: Shengnan Zhao National University of Singapore

Presenting Author Biography: Miss.Zhao Shengnan is a research associate in Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) and a Ph.D student of Civil Engineering in National University of Singapore. She joined SERIES after she obtained a master in Mechanical Engineering and participated in several research projects about solar energy. Her research interest is the reliability of floating structures.

Authors:

Shengnan Zhao National University of Singapore
Ying Min Low National University of Singapore
Carlos David Rodriguez Gallegos National University of Singapore
Thomas Reindl National University of Singapore