The bright future for floating solar tech

IEC

The potential for floating solar photovoltaic panels and farms is tremendous, despite initial deployment costs. The IEC is preparing the standards for it to be used safely and efficiently – and in all weather conditions.

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Floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) panels – sometimes called floatovoltaics – is a relatively new renewable energy option, but one with huge potential. According to the IEA, in 2023, solar PV alone accounted for three-quarters of renewable capacity additions worldwide. Yet most of the solar panels installed so far lie on land, which pose crucial issues for land use particularly in countries where land is at a premium. This includes island states, for instance, but also countries with high population density where land is a constraint.

It’s one of the reasons why the deployment of solar technologies which float on water are predicted to increase rapidly over the next few years. “With 70% of the world covered with water, research and development of FPV on ocean platforms opens a new era of solar energy with the advancement of robust floating structures,” an international research team states in a review of the field published in April.

The scientists conclude that FPV systems outperform land-based solar PV systems under similar conditions but warn that offshore weather and harsh ocean currents may pose serious challenges to FPV structures. “Therefore, research and development efforts addressing this issue are crucial,” they say.

Shading the water

FPV modules are solar PV panels mounted on raft-like structures that float on a body of water such as drinking water reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals, hydropower or agriculture reservoirs, industrial ponds and near-coastal areas.

While one of the obvious advantages of floating solar PV tech is that it avoids taking up land space. It can also allow for power generation to be sited much closer to areas where demand for electricity is high. This makes the technology an attractive option for countries with high population density and competing uses for available land.

Floating sun-powered farms also solve another problem plaguing conventional land-based solar PV modules: inefficiency when the panels become too hot. FPV panels generate extra energy because of the cooling effect of the water they hover over. The proximity to water of floating solar modules is estimated to increase their electricity production by up to 15%.

Stationary floating panels also double as shades for the water body, which reduces the evaporation of water. This is an added advantage in areas where water is becoming scarcer. (For more information on the preservation of water read: when cities run dry: tackling water scarcity).

Asia leads the way

The technology is particularly well suited to countries in Asia where land is scarce but there are many hydroelectric dams connected to the electricity grid. The world’s first floating solar plant was built in Japan. The country’s inland lakes and reservoirs are now home to 73 of the world's 100 largest floating solar plants. A floating solar plant in East China generates almost 78 000 megawatts (MW), enough to power 21 000 homes. A South Korean plant delivers 102,5 MW, capable of powering 35 000 homes. Island state Singapore has constructed a solar farm with 13 000 FPV panels in the Strait of Johor with the ability to produce up to 5 MW – sufficient energy to power 1 400 residential flats all year-round. A project at Sirindhorn Dam in Thailand is estimated to help reduce carbon emissions by 0,546 tons per 1 000 kilowatt per hour (kWh) produced. 

Covering just 10% of all man-made reservoirs in the world with FPV panels would result in an installed capacity of 20 Terawatts (TW) – 20 times more than the entire global solar PV capacity today, according to an analysis by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (Seris).

Reliability and financial concerns

As it stands however, less than 1% of the world's solar installations are floating, according to the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology at the UK’s Loughborough University. This is partly due to technical and financial constraints. Saltwater causes corrosion while positioning panels at the right angle is tricky and expensive on a floating platform.

Although panels clip together and are then pushed out onto the water, they require an anchoring system, which helps to keep the pontoon stable. The deeper the body of water, the higher the cost of the anchor. Also influencing deployment costs are water level variations, characteristics of soil/bedrock and the type of floats used to support the PV modules.

For example, the reported anchoring costs for the Anhui project in China are relatively low at around 10 USD/kW. It is in shallow water and has benefited from the local manufacturing facilities and labour force. But for a similar scheme in Japan the anchoring price is substantially higher.

Researchers also point to the lack of supporting policies and development roadmaps by governments that could hinder the technology’s growth and viability. Installations of floating modules on freshwater bodies may also face opposition if they compete with other leisure activities, such as angling. There are further concerns that large-scale plants may harm marine ecosystems by blocking sunlight. The risk of disruption or even destruction due to volatile weather is also discouraging investment. A typhoon damaged Japan’s largest FPV plant in 2019, for instance.

Where standards can help

As is the case with other emerging technologies, standards can help to bring the cost of FPV down. They can also set benchmarks for the construction of solar PV plants, ensuring they are able to withstand severe weather conditions and do not pose problems for the environment. The IEC is working on a new technical specification (TS) due to be published at the end of 2024, which establishes the guidelines and recommendations for the design of FPV plants. The plan is to later expand the TS into a full standard. Issues addressed include how to implement electrical earthing in an installation over water and carry out insulation resistance measurements, how to implement proper mooring and anchoring of the modules, selecting the suitable cables and connectors, as well as cable routing and management, location of inverters and transformers (e.g. over water or on land) – right down to issues such as the cleaning of bird droppings!

Standards are required because of the technology challenges that need to be addressed but also because basic estimates of the potential for floating solar are overwhelming. One study found that solar panels floating on just 1% of Africa's hydropower reservoirs could double the continent's hydropower capacity and increase electricity generation from dams by 58%. This is precisely because FPV panels stop water from evaporating. According to nature.com, if 10% of the world’s hydropower reservoirs were covered with FPV it could generate as much electricity as all the world’s operating fossil fuel power plants combined. The market is expected to grow 43% a year over the next ten years, reaching USD 24,5 bn (Euro 22,2 bn) by 2031. Standards will enable the tech to truly prosper alongside other renewable energies as we aim to meet our net zero targets.

 

Role models: responsibility for diversity goes beyond DEI departments

IBC

Miranda Wayland, CEO of Creative Diversity Network says the focus on individual DEI executives and departments misses the bigger picture.  

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Hiring diversity executives in Hollywood jumped after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement, but economic pressures since then have been blamed for several high-profile figures losing their jobs.

The exits in quick succession of Diversity and Inclusion (DEI) professionals at Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros Discovery and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences prompted headlines a year ago about ‘diversity fatigue’. The phrase itself is ambiguous. Some claim it signals a waning of the enthusiasm for hiring chief diversity officers as the issue dips beneath the front pages. On the other, the DEI execs themselves seemed to warn of burnout amid under-resourced departments.

Then in April this year, one of the industry’s best-known diversity executives, Miranda Wayland announced her departure from Amazon Prime Video amid a restructure of Amazon’s UK and European business.

This trend triggered a conference session at the Edinburgh TV Festival debating whether DEI departments should exist.

The poll of industry execs in the audience at Edinburgh was overwhelmingly positive that, yes, DEI departments had a vital role. That the issue was even being questioned may be provocative but did not come as a surprise to Wayland.

“I am perplexed by it personally,” she said. “I think when you look at various other roles in the industry, we don’t go up in arms when, for example, a head of finance has left. Nor do we question in DEI departments why people occupy roles for very long periods, and why there’s no fresh vision coming through. As a sector, we don’t often look at it from that perspective.

“Actually, it may be just that the time is right for that particular individual to move on in their career,” continued Wayland. “Perhaps some individuals don’t want to be pigeonholed into being ‘the DEI representative’ because they have plenty of other strings to their bow.”

While departures like Wayland’s make good headlines, she was keen to point to the stability of DEI executives and programs in the industry.

“People’s careers evolve. I think about my journey where I learned a lot from the BBC, including skillsets which I could then apply at Amazon. So if you look at people’s career trajectories it isn’t a case of sitting in an organisation until they drop down dead. It’s actually natural to use experiences in different jobs at different companies as a springboard to the next.”

The bigger question is whether those roles are being replaced or disappeared. Wayland said: “We should be asking if the institution is well equipped to continue the work. Because putting diversity on the sole head of responsibility for one individual does not work.

“You won’t have just one finance person controlling an organisation and expect them to run or change the entire infrastructure. Likewise, championing equity should not be the task of one person.

“We shouldn’t be putting the responsibility for that effort all on one individual. The question for me is not about the disappearance of any particular named talent but whether the company or institution is set up to independently carry forward something that we should all have ownership of.”

Wayland was formerly Head of Workforce and Creative Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC before moving to Amazon, where she played a significant role in the development of Prime Video Pathway, a £10m talent initiative, which is designed to open up access to jobs in the TV and film industry across the UK. She has also worked to help drive the pan-industry TV Access Project (TAP) and to establish Amazon’s collaboration with ITV, BBC, Sky and Fremantle to launch the TV Collectives Breakthrough leadership programme. There has not been a like-for-like replacement for Wayland’s position at Amazon.

Of her time at Amazon, she was diplomatic. “You will have to ask the organisation how committed they are. I hope Prime Video will continue to manifest some of the work I did when I was there and equally that they can see the value of a global diverse audience.”

Naomi Sesay, Head of Creative Diversity at Channel 4, suggested the function of DEI needed to change. “Surely we don’t want one specific department dedicated to DEI, we want all departments across the whole organisation to be on the same page. We also need to get people in the organisation to take account of the information [about diversity] put in front of them.”

Dhanny Joshi, Managing Director at Dreaming Whilst Black indie Big Deal Films said: “If there’s not diversity in the commissioning teams [at broadcasters and streamers], if they are all from the same background, they are not going to identify new voices. One day we won’t need DEI. One day it won’t be an afterthought. We are not there yet.”

Fatima Salaria, Executive Chair of The Edinburgh TV Festival and former Head of Specialist Factual at Channel 4, urged a change in the composition of UK TV’s most senior executives. “We need diversity of thought in our leadership, the people who are leading this industry, we need people who are different. We need people who are brave, we need working-class leaders. We need people from different races to absolutely be there in the room when these massive decisions are taken. We need diversity of thought because, at the moment, we have an elite that run this industry, and we absolutely have to change that.”

Creative Diversity Network report

Wayland didn’t leave it long to land another influential role. She now heads up the UK’s Creative Diversity Network (CDN), the body that runs the industry-backed Project Diamond diversity data collection project.

Analysis in its seventh annual report [Diamond: The Seventh Cut] paints a mixed picture of DEI in UK TV. While representation of Black, Asian, gay and other minority ethnic groups is deemed better than average when compared to other industries, other minority groups are at much lower levels than their national workforce equivalents.

The gender split overall is broadly even, however, in senior roles, women are far more likely to be in jobs such as heads of production and less visible in roles such as writers and directors, underpinning how the percentage of women in senior roles overall is continuing to fall.

Craft roles are often strikingly delineated. Some, such as sound and lighting are dominated by white men, with fewer than 8% of contributions to both made by individuals from an ethnic minority background. Fewer than 8% of contributions to lighting are made by women. Conversely, hair and make-up remain dominated by women (95.8% of contributions).

Contributions by disabled people and over-50s are showing year-on-year improvement but still fall below population and workforce estimates.

The organisation also expressed concern that the current downturn could “disproportionally impact workers from lower socio-economic backgrounds, disabled people and those from ethnic minorities.”

CDN has also announced plans to enhance the data it collects, including adding new ethnicity, religious affiliation and socio-economic background questions to the existing Diamond questionnaire forms.

Wayland says: “I’m pleased to be able to announce that going forward, we will expand the data Diamond collects by adding new questions on ethnicity, religious affiliation and socio-economic background. Looking forward we will also focus on highlighting evidence showing whether freelancers and others from lower socio-economic backgrounds, with disabilities or from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately impacted by the current economic downturn in the industry.”

CDN has also partnered with ScreenSkills to collaborate on areas such as data gathering and how CDN’s diversity monitoring and reporting tool can be used to help inform the training and development programmes that ScreenSkills commissions from training providers.

Wayland says: “We see a lot of synergies with ScreenSkills’ role and operations, particularly in areas such as training where both teams can draw on each other’s expertise and talents. Having its support and strategic advice through this partnership will be beneficial to achieving our objectives.”