By SHANGHAI | March 19, 2015 — Solar Power, Inc. has partnered with Aqua Clean Energy (ACE) for the co-development of floating PV projects in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico.
Under the terms of the agreement, ACE and SPI will co-develop an identified pipeline of floating PV projects in the licensed territories with an estimated combined size of over 50 megawatts (MW) by establishing a joint venture holding company, Aqua Clean Energy Fund, LLC.
The floating PV projects to be co-developed by ACE and SPI will implement an innovative floating solar platform, which allows standard PV panels to be installed on large bodies of water such as drinking water reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals or remediation and tailing ponds.
The platform is composed of recyclable materials and has very low environmental impact, greatly reducing water evaporation thereby conserving irrigation and drinking water and slowing algae growth due to the shielding of the water by the floating island.
“Large-scale floating PV systems have increasingly shown their effectiveness in various settings, and this platform gives SPI a strong competitive advantage in this growing market segment,” said Xiaofeng Peng, Chairman of SPI. “This technology not only generates clean solar power energy, but also serves to conserve water in critically dry regions like the Southwestern US and California in particular, which is now experiencing its fourth consecutive year of drought. With extensive experience in identifying host surface sites, securing water surface use approvals, performing feasibility studies and managing PV projects, Aqua Clean Energy is the ideal partner for us in the floating PV market.”
It’s very important to maintain effectively same direction and position on the water for floating solar plants. Because directional change of solar panels reduces electricity production. So floating solar plants also need the directional control mooring systems for their parked positions. Azimuth and position change of floating solar plants caused by wind, waves and external forces. Restoring Force Strengthened Mooring System for floating solar plants has been created in South Korea. This Mooring System generates Restoring Force immediately when Floating solar plants are being rotated or moved on the water. Recently, Restoring Force Strengthened Mooring Systems have been used in South Korea. You can see the Restoring Force Strengthened Mooring System in Ochang Dam, South Korea. I N I WORLD