Environmental Impacts of Floating Solar Panels on Water Bodies

Event: Asia Clean Energy Forum 2019

Environmental Impacts of Floating Solar Panels on Water Bodies

20 June 2019
Author / Speaker: 
Ian Jones, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, United Kingdom - Email the author | Other materials by the author

View Slides

There has been a global trend of increasing deployment of floating solar panels (floatovoltaics) on water bodies over the last few years. Drivers for this have included potential reduction in evaporation and the desire to decarbonize electricity production. Given these environmental motivations, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the impact that floatovoltaics will have on the water body ecosystem itself, despite the many environmental goods and services which water bodies provide. Here we show how the reductions in wind speed, solar radiation and water-air connectivity accompanying floatovoltaic deployment can affect lake physics, particularly water temperature and stratification. These results will be discussed in the context of cascading impacts on the chemistry and ecology of the water body, including algal dynamics and greenhouse gas release. The results demonstrate the need to make judicious decisions on floatovoltaic deployment to ensure that environmental benefits are maximized and deleterious effects minimized.

Geographical Focus: 
Global
Type of Content: 
Learning Event

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term “country” in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.