Towards Sustainable Energy Solutions: Evaluating the Impact of Floating PV Systems in Reducing Water Evaporation and Enhancing Energy Production in Northern Cyprus

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Floating photovoltaic systems (FPVSs) are gaining popularity, especially in countries with high population density and abundant solar energy resources. FPVSs provide a variety of advantages, particularly in situations where land is limited. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to evaluate the solar energy potential and investigate the techno-economic perspective of FPVSs at 15 water reservoirs in Northern Cyprus for the first time. Due to the solar radiation variations, solar power generation is uncertain; therefore, precise characterization is required to manage the grid effectively. In this paper, four distribution functions (Johnson SB, pert, Phased Bi-Weibull, and Kumaraswamy) are newly introduced to analyze the characteristics of solar irradiation, expressed by global horizontal irradiation (GHI), at the selected sites. These distribution functions are compared with common distribution functions to assess their suitability. The results demonstrated that the proposed distribution functions, with the exception of Phased Bi-Weibull, outperform the common distribution regarding fitting GHI distribution. Moreover, this work aims to evaluate the effects of floating photovoltaic systems on water evaporation rates at 15 reservoirs. To this aim, five methods were used to estimate the rate of water evaporation based on weather data. Different scenarios of covering the reservoir’s surface with an FPVS were studied and discussed. The findings showed that annual savings at 100% coverage can reach 6.21 × 105 m3 compared to 0 m3 without PV panels. Finally, technical and economic assessment of FPVSs with various scales, floating assemblies, and PV technologies was conducted to determine the optimal system. The results revealed that a floating structure (North orientation-tilt 6°) and bifacial panels produced the maximum performance for the proposed FPVSs at the selected sites. Consequently, it is observed that the percentage of reduction in electricity production from fossil fuel can be varied from 10.19% to 47.21% at 75% FPV occupancy.