Review of Installation Status and Major Environmental Issues of Floating Photovoltaic Power Plants (FPVs)

Abstract

Objectives : After investigation of types, characteristics, and domestic and overseas installation cases of floating photovoltaic power plants (FPVs), both power generation capacity and coverage ratio of the FPVs were analyzed, and the major environmental issues impacting on water quality and aquatic ecosystem were reviewed.Methods : Both information and data of the FPVs extracted from existing literature and provided by the FPVs installation companies were statistically analyzed.Results and Discussion : FPVs divided into three types such as pontoon type, frame type, and solar tracking type are installed in various ways by country and region. As of the second half of 2018, the global power generation capacity of FPVs is 1.3 GWp, and FPVs have been intensively installed in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and UK. While the pontoon type has been mainly installed in other countries except Korea, the frame type was mainly installed in Korea. Among various water resources, FPVs installed in agricultural water resources have various power generation capacity and coverage ratio whereas FPVs installed in industrial, rainwater storage, and other water resources have relatively high power generation capacity and coverage ratio. Compared to FPVs installed in other water resources, FPVs installed in drinking water resources have relatively low power generation capacity and coverage ratio. After reviewing the major environmental issues related to FPVs (i.e., leaching of hazardous substances, deterioration of water quality and aquatic ecosystem, changes in water temperature and illumination, and disturbance of aquatic ecosystem), the impacts of the FPVs on water environment are found to be insignificant, and the positive effects (i.e., mitigation of green tide and restoration of the aquatic ecosystem) are confirmed.Conclusions : Although the impacts of the FPVs on water environment (water quality and aquatic ecosystem) are found to be insignificant, additional experiments reflecting extreme conditions and long-term continuous monitoring of water quality and aquatic ecosystem in terms of coverage ratio, array and type of FPVs are required.