Technical potential of floating photovoltaic systems on artificial water bodies in Brazil

Abstract

Floating photovoltaic systems (FPVs) are an emerging technology where photovoltaic solar panels are placed on the water surface. They are cost-competitive compared to ground-mounted solar farms and provide some additional and unique properties including reduced evaporation of the water from the reservoir, mitigating algae growth; higher efficiency of electricity generation compared to common PV systems because of the cooling effects of water and preventing land-use conflicts. Despite the growing interest in this technology and the opportunities that it could create, there is no systematic assessment of the technical potential of FPVs in Brazil. This work is the first study on the technical potential of FPVs in artificial water bodies applied to Brazil at country and state levels. The country's potential for this purpose was determined based on two criteria: selecting only artificial/man-made water bodies and excluding protected areas. The QGIS software was used to locate water bodies and cross georeferenced meteorological data. The results show that even if FPVs cover only 1% of the identified suitable areas this technology can produce energy equivalent to almost 12.5% of the current national electricity generation and correspond to approximately 16% of Brazil's electricity consumption.