Offshore wind will supply a significant proportion of Europe’s electrical energy in the near future. But those towers and turbines need to be spaced fairly far apart to avoid interfering with each other. That leaves a lot of open ocean in between, ocean that gets sunlight all day long.
SolarDuck, a Dutch/Norwegian company, is working on floating solar energy technology that would float on the surface of the ocean to generate electricity to supplement the output of those offshore wind turbines. They already need submarine cables to carry their electricity ashore. Why not use that infrastructure to also transport electricity from solar panels?
Why indeed. RWE, one of Germany’s largest utility companies, has entered into an agreement to explore and develop floating offshore solar farms worldwide, starting with a 0.5 MW installation called Merganser, which will be part of an offshore wind project in the North Sea near Ostend, Belgium. The project includes battery storage and will serve as a pilot of the new technology before it is expanded and applied in other locations.
This collaboration agreement accelerates the transition of SolarDuck’s offshore floating solar energy technology toward cost-effective, commercial technology, accelerating the global rollout of this exciting new technology. SolarDuck CEO Koen Burgers says: “The need for safe, sustainable and affordable energy demands new and immediate responses from industry in Europe and also worldwide. SolarDuck is part of this response, enabling offshore solar installations to open up an exciting new market.
“By showing SolarDuck’s robust technology under rough North Sea conditions, we can deploy the technology practically anywhere in the world. We are very pleased to have found a strong partner in RWE who shares our vision to electrify the world with offshore floating PV. I look forward to our organizations working together to achieve that.”
Image Courtesy of SolarDuck
According to CNBC, the SolarDuck system uses a design that allows the solar panels to “float” 5 meters above the water and waves “like a carpet”. It can also withstand wind speeds of up to 70 mph and has an expected lifespan of 30 years. One of the goals of the collaboration is to use the SolarDuck floating solar technology in a larger demonstration project as part of the Hollandse Kust West offshore wind farm, which is currently under development. RWE says the “integration of offshore floating solar into an offshore wind farm” was “a more efficient use of ocean space for power generation”.
Ocean-Based Floating Solar Power Has Arrived
SolarDuck is not the only company working on floating solar energy on the ocean. According to CNBC, a consortium consisting of Shell and Eneco is developing an offshore wind farm with a series of ‘technology demonstrations’, including floating solar, short-term battery storage and hydrogen produced by electrolysis. The 759 MW Hollandse Kust Noord facility will use 69 Siemens Gamesa turbines, each with a capacity of 11 MW for a total capacity of 3.3 TWh per year. The CrossWind joint venture, which will be located approximately 18.5 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands, is expected to be operational in 2023.
Offshore floating solar will be one piece of the renewable energy puzzle we will need to get rid of our addiction to fossil fuels as we struggle to keep the Earth cool enough to support human life. A little less yelling at each other and more cooperation would also go a long way toward keeping the only house we’ll ever have habitable.
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