Unlocking the floating photovoltaic potential of Türkiye's hydroelectric power plants

Abstract

The massive surface of the water accumulated in the basins of hydroelectric power plants (HEPPs) can be considered an excellent opportunity for floating photovoltaics (FPV). Türkiye is among the countries that can utilize this potential with its large HEPPs. In this study, the surface areas of 76 HEPPs in Türkiye were determined using the Random Forest algorithm over Google Earth Engine, and the technical potential of FPV that could be installed in these areas was evaluated over five scenarios. In addition, the water recovery that can be obtained with the FPV installation has been calculated. When the entire surfaces of the dams are used, the FPV technical potential and the amount of water recovered are 380,439.85 MW and 25.40 km3/year, respectively. Even when only 10% of the surfaces of the dams are used, the FPV technical potential meets 39.67% of Türkiye's total installed power capacity. Moreover, the water recovered from evaporation meets 7.3% of the surface water used for agricultural irrigation. In addition, it has been calculated that the FPV electricity generation potential of HEPPs producing 674,280.17 GWh of electricity in 2020 is 13.82 times higher than the hydroelectric potential. The results demonstrated how great the FPV solar power plant potential that the country HEPPs carries on their idle water surfaces.