CHINA- THE HOME OF THE LARGEST FLOATING SOLAR POWER PLANT
Urbanization had encroached vast of our living spaces for both humans, animals and gadgets, and this gadets needs to be powered to serve humanity their purposes of been fabricated. This is once a dilema for Megalopolis and Cities, how to solve energy generation without affecting the living populace was the headache.
Then, along came renewable energy; Just like the blockchain technology. The most abundant of all renewables- Solar Energy to the rescue. It has been in existence since the creation of the World till some great minds came up with ideas on how to harness this Energy from the Sun and put it to optimum use.
Now it gets more interesting as the World's largest floatimg Solar Power plant is now online in China's Huainan city, in the Eastern Anhui province. As strange as it sounds, this solar farm is floating on a flooded old coal-mining area.
As the highest investors in Renewable energies across the World, such as Hydro and Solar power, China beats every other countries in Energy generation(espcially from this two mentioned means). Although floating system had been used in the past, it's major advantages are;
They don't consume land space.
Secondly, the cooling effects of the water on the panels which contributes to it's high efficiency.
The United Kingdom owns the largest floating solar plant before with a 6.3 Mega Watts power generation before China's 40 Mega Watts arrays came online and surpassing all.
Practically, this 40-MW floating facility that was constructed over a flooded former coal-mine could power a small town efficiently.
Floating Solar farms are becoming increasingly popular around the world because of their unique designs which addresses multiple efficiency ans city planning problems.
Nice
Thanks for sharing, had no idea that this existed!!!
it is very much in existence mate.
That's very cool interesting. I'd imagine the water cooling aspect would definitely help a lot, though one area that seems to be overlooked is the space above roadways. Of course, there is the caveat of it not being as viable in areas with many tall buildings to block the sunlight, but it's still an option to consider for many locations. At any rate, it's a lot more practical than making the roads themselves solar panels.
considering the pylons to mount the panels, it can be really expensive than making the road solar arrays.....it is a good alternative to be honest.
But you have to consider that you're going to have vehicles driving on it, like all the time, as well as the fact that solar panels generate a lot less energy when laid flat on the ground, versus at a fixed angle or, better yet, one that changes throughout the day to maximize exposure.
Even if the rubber from the tires didn't scratch whatever is covering the solar panels, anything harder than the glass covering that gets caught in the treads will, not to mention skid marks and what-have-you. Every time it gets scratched or smudged, the efficiency decreases further.
Yes, the pylons are expensive, but the amount of efficiency measures you give up and maintenance costs you takeon make it not worth it.
I think they are made of a guerrilla materials or something, and they are made to charge electric cars. I made a post about somewhere in Germany that made that available for electric cars....
Ah, Gorilla Glass. I just looked it up, and it is orders of magnitude better than regular glass. In terms of hardness, it's a tiny bit softer than quartz, and apparently it's actually not too expensive to produce.
Still, all sorts of rocks and gravel can end up in tire treads, and while they'd likely last quite a while, they'd nevertheless build up scratches over time, reducing efficiency along with anything else that ends up reducing exposure to the panels, on top of the already ~60% decrease in efficiency from them being laid flat in the ground.
Not only does the glass have to be as tough and durable as asphalt, it has to be tough and durable enough to stay transparent long enough to give a ROI on whatever the cost of both the glass and the panel itself is.
wish i could dig out that post i made, it's been long though.
This arrays on the road covers just a portion of the road, not very long distance and it is specified for cars that uses electricity, meaning few cars move on it to get recharged.
Now about efficiency, i think it is designed to be replaced after some specific period to combat the inefficiency problem.
Those Chinese guys are really innovative in their pursuit for cheap energy.
That's smart thinking with the cooling effect, but won't that cool the solar panels down = less energy is absorbed?
Sorry if it's a silly question lol :D
No mate, it is a very thoughtful question. I won't cool the solar panel down cos the ration is like 10:1......simply put, the cooling effect takes huge chunk of heat off but there is still heat present.
I always wish i was born over there, they are so awesome!
Hw do I join steemtrail?