Floating Solar in Asia

Floating Solar
in Asia

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Floating Solar in Asia

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment
3

Team Details
4

Nomenclature & Acronyms

5

Introduction
6

Development of the Asian FPV market

7

The deployment of FPV technologies in different environments 11

Freshwater basins 11
Hydropower & FPV hybrid 12
Marine installations 14
Costs of FPV 16
Closing words 18
Sources 19

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Floating Solar in Asia

Acknowledgments
We would like to extend a special thanks to Celine
Paton from the Solar Energy Research Institute
of Singapore and Tianyang Qin from Sungrow
for contributing their invaluable expertise to the
drafting of this white paper.

SERIS has been leading Floating PV research Sungrow has been dedicated to the
in Singapore and worldwide. SERIS has renewable energy industry for more than 23
managed the design and construction, and years. Facing the global demands of floating
is now operating the world’s largest testbed solar plants, Sungrow has established a
for Floating PV at Tengeh Reservoir since specialized research and manufacturing
2016. base for floating solar plants. The total
installed capacity of Sungrow floating
solutions has exceeded 1 GW.

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Floating Solar in Asia

Team Details

Kristiaan Versteeg
Project Manager
Finance and Innovation
[email protected]

Hamed Roozdar
Business Developer
[email protected]

Zsolt Szalay
Research Analyst
[email protected]

Mina Mesbahi
Research Strategist
[email protected]

Design and layout: Alla Bokova

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Copyright © Solarplaza 2020 July

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Floating Solar in Asia

Nomenclature & Acronyms

CAPEX Capital expenditures

FPV Floating Photovoltaic
GWp Gigawatt peak
LCOE Levelized cost of electricity
MWp Megawatt peak
O&M Operation and Maintenance
OPEX Operating expenditures
SERIS Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore

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Floating Solar in Asia

Introduction

Since the development of the first floating For the near future, Asia is expected to continue
photovoltaic (FPV) power generation system in to be the hotbed for the development of FPV
Japan in 2007, the application of such systems technology. Next to the dominance of China
has gradually gained popularity in many and Japan, more large-scale FPV projects are
countries around the world including China, being developed in emerging markets like
South Korea, Taiwan, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea,
Vietnam and the US. The last three years were Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and India.
particularly important in terms of global FPV To get a better idea of how the Asian FPV
capacity gain. From 2017 onwards, the annual market will develop in the upcoming years,
capacity additions have become significantly Solarplaza reached out to Celine Paton, Senior
higher due to the increasing number of large- Financial Analyst at SERIS and Tianyang Qin,
scale projects primarily in China. Although Overseas Business Development Manager at
today operational FPV plants can be found Sungrow for their take on the future of FPV.
on every habitable continent on earth, Asia’s With the help of Paton and Qin, this paper aims
dominance in the number of projects and to shed light on the most recent trends in the
cumulative installed capacity is indisputable. Asian FPV markets, the benefits and challenges
of developing FPV projects in different
As highlighted in Solarplaza’s analysis of the environments, and their relative costs.
“Top 200 Operational Floating Solar Projects”,
Asia is home to more than 94% of the total
capacity of the 200 largest FPV projects on that
list. The picture is very similar when looking at
the spatial distribution of global installations.
The 2019 data from the Solar Energy Research
Institute of Singapore (SERIS) speaks to that, as
it shows that 95% of the 1.8 GWp global FPV
capacity was located in Asia.

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Floating Solar in Asia

Development of the
Asian FPV market
As mentioned in the introduction, it was the largest FPV project to date. Although larger
in Japan where solar PV panels were first projects have not been commissioned in the
installed floating on the surface of a lake in last two years, there have been several large-
2007. Since then, the deployment of FPV has scale FPV projects completed. The table below
grown significantly around the world, with highlights the world’s ten largest FPV projects,
the majority of projects being concentrated in which clearly shows China’s dominance in the
Asia. Similar to the deployment of other new global FPV market (Table 1).
technologies, the early FPV projects were
small-scale installations. Since 2013, FPV It is interesting to note that all of the listed
technology has been advancing rapidly though, projects are located in Asia, and nine of them
which has led to a surge in commercial projects, within the borders of China. Also, the total
primarily in Japan and South Korea. capacity of the ten projects - all of which were
built between 2017 and 2019 - accounted for
However, it was China’s entrance to the FPV about 50% of the global FPV capacity at the
market that helped the technology take off. end of 2019.
What was at that time just a niche market
became one of the fastest growing new PV
deployment options. While 2013 marks the
year in which South Korea built the world’s first
FPV project with a capacity of 1 MWp, China’s
involvement paved the way for the realization
of considerably larger FPV projects

In 2016, China became home of the largest FPV

project thanks to its newly commissioned 20
MWp plant located in a coal mining subsidence
area. Later in 2018, China made headlines
again by bringing online a 150 MWp project,

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Floating Solar in Asia

Table 1: Top 10 operational FPV projects

Floating
Operatinal
Name of plant/ region Scale (MWp) Country System
Year Provider

Anhui province 150.00 China 2018 Mixed Chinese

Guqiao Huainan/ China coal

150.00 China 2019 Sungrow
subsidence

Yingshang coal mining

130.00 China 2018 Mixed Chinese
subsidence area

Xinji Huanian/ China coal

102.00 China 2017 Sungrow
subsidence

Weishan Jining/ China large-

100.00 China 2018 Sungrow
scale waters

Hunan River 100.00 China 2019 Sungrow

Anhui Cecep 70.00 China 2019 Ciel & Terre

Huancheng Jining / China

50.00 China 2018 Sungrow
coal subsidence

Da Mi Hydropower
47.50 Vietnam 2019 Narime-Qihua
Reservoir

Coal mining subsidence area

40.00 China 2017 Sungrow
of Huainan City

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Floating Solar in Asia

However, while China has been gathering a lot “Development Banks, such as the World
of buzz during the last few years, other Asian Bank and the Asian Development
countries have started to also crank up their
Bank, and their private sector arms
development of FPVs. According to Celine
are increasingly engaging with
Paton, these countries include Singapore,
Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, Laos, Indonesia, governments to advise them on site
Malaysia, Vietnam and India. selection and regulatory best practices
such as power purchase agreements
Thailand announced that it has 2.7 GWp of FPV and public-private partnerships.”
projects under development in combination
with 9 hydropower plants. Taiwan is also As the list of largest projects indicate, most of
boasting impressive projects, including a new the utility-scale projects have been developed
record-breaking 181 MWp project set to on industrial basins such as flooded coal mining
come online later this year. South Korea has subsidence areas. An interesting trend with
more than 2 GWp of FPV in the pipeline, all of enormous development potential is the use of
which are located on the coast of the Yellow hydropower reservoirs for the deployment of
Sea. Similarly, Laos announced that it plans Floating PV. The Vietnamese hydro-FPV hybrid
to develop 1.2 GWp of FPV plants on a single plant in the top ten largest projects is one such
dam, while Taiwan and Vietnam, both known example. Together with other announced
for their utility-scale sector, have made a big large-scale projects on hydropower dams (e.g.
step for FPV by including the technology in in Thailand), this indicates a maturing of FPV
their feed-in tariff schemes. Last but not least, technology that can successfully withstand
India has also been on the rise lately with the the significant water-level oscillations. An even
announcements of multiple FPV tenders, many more promising sign is the emergence of FPV
of them in very large scale (>100 MWp). As projects in (semi-)marine environments, which
Paton explained, the other main trend in the suggests that some of the FPV equipment can
Asian FPV market is that the already offer long-term resistance against
the harsh environmental conditions that are

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Floating Solar in Asia

present in near-shore locations. Once these

new technologies will prove to be reliable in
the long run and at a reasonable cost, FPV
technology could unlock an immense amount
of additional area for development. To see
what the challenges and opportunities of FPV
applications are in the above-mentioned water
bodies, the following section will discuss the
specific requirements, and possible benefits of
FPV systems at freshwater basins, hydropower
plants and marine environments.

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Floating Solar in Asia

The deployment of FPV technologies

in different environments
Freshwater basins

As the very first FPV systems were developed is that FPV systems have to utilize mooring
on industrial and agricultural water bodies, and anchoring systems in order to fix the
freshwater basins can be considered the floats, and thus, keep the whole system in
cradle of the technology. The layout of the their correct place.
systems in such basins show similarities with
their land-based counterparts. For example, The appropriate mooring and anchoring
it is possible to use the same PV modules, of FPV systems is a critical step, as they
inverters, transformers and cabling for both have to do their job regardless of the water
the land-based and FPV systems as long as level oscillations of the basin or the high
the water impermeability of the components wind speeds even under extreme weather
is assured. conditions, such as during tropical cyclones.
This is an especially important factor to
On the other hand, the most obvious consider in the western Pacific regions,
difference between the layout of land- where the frequency of tropical cyclones
based PV and FPV systems is that the PV (called typhoons in the region) is the highest
modules of FPV systems are mounted on on Earth.
floating structures. Depending on the size
and location of the project, the inverters can Once these challenges have been overcome,
be placed on land or they can be floating on the benefits of FPV systems on freshwater
special platforms. The inverter of a small FPV basins are manifold. On top of the often-
project close to shore can be placed on land, cited benefits of every FPV system over
which can decrease the capital expenses land-based PV systems, such as the increase
(CAPEX) of the project. However, projects in energy yield due to the cooling effect from
that are larger or far from the shore benefit the water (which is climate dependent),
from floating inverters to reduce DC cabling decrease in shading and in certain cases
costs and losses. The other main difference soiling, as well as easier site preparation and

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Floating Solar in Asia

Hydropower & FPV hybrid

installation, the development and operation From a systemic point of view, there is
of FPV projects on freshwater basins could currently hardly any better renewable
largely benefit the communities located energy generation option than the coupling
in the vicinity of the projects as well. For of FPV with hydropower. One advantage is
example, the inhabitants of the province of that the grid connection of the FPV plant
Anhui in China are now making their money in many cases can be realized through the
out of FPV project installations and their existing infrastructure of the hydropower
operation and maintenance on flooded coal plant, which significantly reduces the CAPEX
mines. Just a few years back, these people of the project. In addition, the adjustability
were working as coal miners, from which of the hydropower plants (depending on
profession they generated lower income the turbine type) means that the variability
and were also subject to high risks of health of the solar power generation can, at least
hazards. So by turning the flooded coal mines partly, be compensated. On a diurnal cycle,
of the area into lucrative solar business the water resources of the hydropower
opportunities, communities of the area saw plant can be saved during the day and then
multiple benefits on both the environmental released at night (Figure 1).
and social sides.

In general, the water level oscillations,

water depth, soil conditions, wind speed
and the size of the waves are all factors that
determine how costly and challenging the
installation and operation of an FPV plant
will be.

Figure 1: Power output of hydropower and

solar PV during a sunny summer day for the
Longyangxia plant (Cazzaniga et al., 2019)

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Floating Solar in Asia

Furthermore, the water resources could also When Qin was asked about the challenges of
be saved during certain times of the year. FPV installations on hydropower dams, she
According to Sungrow’s Qin, highlighted the large water level variations and
the need for deep water anchoring. However,
the use of underwater robots and positioning
“the application of a floating power
devices can assist deep water construction,
systems has the potential to reduce and as such, the quality of anchoring can be
the water evaporation. The reduction assured.
rate will depend on the water surface
coverage ratio and the season but
according to our simulations, the
water evaporation could be reduced
by almost 30% with full surface
coverage during dry and hot seasons.”

Finally, in the temperate and monsoon regions

of Asia, where the precipitation is highly
seasonal, the hybridization of hydropower
with FPV has the potential to compensate
each other on a seasonal basis. During the
dry season, when the hydropower plant has
lower electricity output due to the scarcity of
water resources, the conditions are optimal
for solar energy generation. During the wet
season, the exact opposite happens, and
therefore, the hybrid solution reduces the
yearly electricity generation fluctuations of
the two technologies.

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Floating Solar in Asia

Marine installations

The application of FPV systems in near-shore “There is still a need to do more

and off-shore environments is a relatively research, pilot studies and
new concept. Although it could offer an ocean
demonstration in marine conditions
(literally) of potential for FPV, they also present
at a smaller scale, before we can
some additional challenges. The extreme
environmental conditions (e.g. combined wind have larger commercially viable FPV
and waves, tides) and the marine atmosphere systems out at sea. Some solutions of
(e.g. salt mist, biofouling) that are present related industries such as off-shore
in such sea spaces were underlined as the and marine could in principle be
main difficulties for the commercialization of applied, but the problem is the cost of
FPV on seawater by both Paton and Qin. In
these technologies. In the extremely
marine environments, especially off-shore,
the mooring and anchoring of floats is a huge
competitive solar energy industry,
challenge, where next to the bigger and often where the margins are rather thin, a
choppier waves, more powerful winds and cost-effective design is a prerequisite.”
significantly larger depths, the tidal movements
and currents of water bodies also need to be On the other hand, there are already several
considered. In addition, the salinity of water and companies that are researching the viability of
the surrounding air also pose some challenges. off-shore FPV, and as a result, we can already
see the emergence of off-shore pilot projects.
To overcome these issues, there might be a For example, the world’s first off-shore FPV
need for re-designing the floating structures system was successfully installed in the Dutch
and mooring and anchoring systems so that North Sea in 2019.
they can withstand the continuous occurrence
of extreme conditions on the long run. As Paton
explained, the knowledge of marine and off-
shore industries could be utilized here.

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Floating Solar in Asia

Alternatively, the application of FPV near to In general, however, there are still a lot of
the shore is not as challenging as in the open uncertainties regarding the costs and long-
waters, and therefore, we can already see term durability of equipment in marine
the emergence of bigger projects primarily in environments.
lagoons, bays and atolls, where the water is
relatively shallow and the waves are smaller.
Some of the countries that are operating or
developing near-shore FPV plants are the
Maldives, Norway, Singapore, Taiwan, South
Korea and the Seychelles.

Middle-East near-shore 80kWp FPV Project (Courtesy of Sungrow Floating)

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Floating Solar in Asia

Costs of FPV
The total capital expenditures of an FPV of the most competitive markets such as India
system will depend on many variables, and and Thailand, as Paton added, we can now see
therefore, it is very difficult to generalize. projects rolling out at much more aggressive
First of all, the CAPEX of a project will depend turnkey prices of about $0.5 per W.
largely on the complexity of a specific project.
As already mentioned, the water depths, water In China, one of Sungrow’s large-scale projects
level variation, bathymetry, soil conditions was also completed at a capital cost of around
at the bottom of the reservoirs, wind speed $0.55 per Wp in 2019. The breakdown of the
and possibly waves (for larger reservoirs) system costs reveals that the costs of floats and
are some of the most important factors to PV panels accounted for about three-quarters
be considered, as are tides, waves and the of the total expenditures (Figure 2).
corrosive environment in marine spaces.
Second, the CAPEX of an FPV project is also According to Qin, the capital costs of FPV
country-specific. For example, the reported systems are expected to decrease over time
FPV system costs are significantly higher in mainly due to the projected cost reductions
Japan than in China and India, a trend that of PV modules and floats. She also added that
can also be observed for other types of solar the cost reduction of floats will be achieved by
system installations. the optimization of manufacturing technique
and floating design as well as the economies of
If we make a comparison between the capital scale.
costs of FPV systems and land-based systems,
the CAPEX of an FPV system used to be higher. Generally speaking, the operation and
According to a report written by SERIS and maintenance (O&M) activities of an FPV plant
the World Bank Group, “Where Sun Meets is more complex than that of the land-based
Water”, the total CAPEX for FPV systems in systems. Although the soiling of the panels is
2018 ranged between $0.8 and $1.2 per Wp. generally less of an issue (but again this is site-
However, that has changed since and in some specific), some of the maintenance activities
require specialized personnel. For example, the
inspection and maintenance of mooring and

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Floating Solar in Asia

8%
2%
Float
3%
29% PV Panel
4%
Inverter
9%
Cable

Power Transmission

45%

Figure 2: Breakdown of a large-scale FPV system cost in China (Sungrow)

anchoring systems are often done by divers. All things considered, we can see that the
Furthermore, for most of the FPV systems, a CAPEX and OPEX of an FPV system will vary
boat is required to access the plant. However, significantly depending on the environmental
these are not the only factors that affect the conditions of the project site, but most of the
O&M cost of FPV systems. Just as the CAPEX, industry representatives believe that the more
the operating expenses (OPEX) of projects capital intensive investment of FPV projects
will also be affected by the wind speed, the can be balanced out during the long-term
size of waves, the water level oscillations and operation of the plants, thereby, the levelized
the salinity of the water (where applicable). In cost of electricity (LCOE) of the project could
addition, in some regions, the accumulation generate similar values than a comparable
of bird droppings on the systems was also project on land.
identified as an O&M issue that necessitates
frequent cleaning.

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Floating Solar in Asia

Closing words
Although still in its infancy, the growing number some of the above-mentioned issues, will push
of large-scale FPV projects are signaling that the technology down the learning curve, and
the technology is already commercially viable most importantly, it will strengthen the solar
in Asia and in other parts of the world, too. This industry as a whole by unlocking an immense
is good news considering that the cost of the amount of additional potential for solar energy
technology is expected to see further decrease generation.
thanks to its increasing market penetration,
and the optimization of equipment and FPV To learn more about the advantages,
system design. challenges, development and potential of
FPV, and meet the leading players active in
However, we saw that the CAPEX and OPEX this space, join the International Floating
of FPV plants are highly site- and country- Solar Conference 2020, taking place in
specific and that some of the potential the Taets Art and Event Park in Amsterdam
environments for FPV deployment are still on November 4.
posing technological, operational and financial
challenges to the industry. We can also see that
there are relatively high levels of uncertainties
around the long-term durability of the systems
as well as their impact on the ecosystem and
the quality of the water.

The limited amount of long-term data suggests

that we will not be able to immediately answer
all of the questions regarding FPV, but the
ramping up of floating solar installations
around the world will not only increase data
availability, but it will also help find solutions to

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Floating Solar in Asia

Sources
Cazzaniga, R., Rosa-Clot, M., Rosa-Clot, P., & Tina, G. M. (2019) Integration of PV floating with
hydroelectric power plants. Heliyon, 5 (6), e01918.

Oceans of Energy (2019) A world’s first: offshore floating solar farm installed at the Dutch North
Sea. Retrieved from:
https://oceansofenergy.blue/2019/12/11/a-worlds-first-offshore-floating-solar-farm-
installed-at-the-dutch-north-sea/

Santiago, C (2020) Floating solar energy projects gain traction in Asia. The Asset.
Retrieved from:
https://www.theasset.com/article-esg/40411/floating-solar-energy-projects-gain-
traction-in-asia

World Bank Group, ESMAP and SERIS (2019) Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Market
Report. Washington, DC: World Bank. Retrieved from:
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31880

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Floating Solar in Asia

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