Eco Factor: Concentrating solar panels to be floated on water bodies to generate renewable energy.
Solaris Energy has won an award for an idea that could help generate renewable energy without compromising on land resources. The company, which is at the start-up stage, believes that large scale concentrated photovoltaic systems could be floated on large water bodies to preserve land for more important needs.
With a tiny (home-sized) 1KW prototype installed on the company’s roof, the developers plan to build a 200KW system that can be installed in a water reservoir in Israel to test the concept. Solaris Energy points out that a majority of the sun’s energy that hits the earth falls on water surfaces, which their floating power plant can utilize to generate energy.
Until now, CPV systems have only been tested on land, as they require high sunlight concentration levels and need a mechanism to evacuate heat, which reduces efficiency. The Solaris panels would use cooling qualities of water to negate the heat effect and better the efficiency of solar panels.
Via: Green Prophet
