Solar panels on water

It is well known that solar energy is the cheapest available, and the price of solar panels continues to drop with each passing year, thus continuing to lower the cost of that energy.

Solar energy has reached 800 GW. in 2021, but that barely represents 4% of world needs, which indicates that there is still a long way to go, and a long way to go to place many solar panels all around the world.

One of the drawbacks of solar panels is that they need a lot of available surface to be placed, since each one contributes little energy, and many are required together to get somewhat appreciable energy.

In recent times, solar panels placed on water surfaces have increased a lot, since in this way a surface on land is not “occupied”, and also, since the panels are close to water, their temperature remains relatively low and they generate more electric power.

And to get even more energy, you can make the panels follow the orientation of the sun (from east to west) and thus make the sun’s rays hit perpendicularly and therefore obtain more energy. The improvement can be between 30 and 40% over static panels, and the increase in cost is offset by the increase in energy generated.

Every day there is more news around the world about solar panels on water, and specialist companies like SolarisFloat in Portugal get new projects all over Europe.

The most sophisticated projects are capable of compensating for the possible movement produced in the panels by the wind, placing propellers on the supports that are in the water, which counteract this movement.

Experts predict a great future for solar panels on water, as they also reduce water condensation and the formation of algae that spoil the quality of the water.

In short, they have many more advantages than disadvantages, and for this reason, every day we will see more installations of this type operating throughout the world.