Experimental investigation of the microclimate effects on floating solar power plant energy efficiency

Abstract

Solar PVs are mostly built on uncultivated land. However, the increase in land values due to the increasing world population, the lack of suitable areas for potential PV plants, especially in the land-scarce countries, and the increasing energy need led researchers to seek new solutions. At this point, floating solar power plants emerge as a good alternative with their advantages such as not occupying land area and reducing water evaporation by covering the water surface. In this study, a floating photovoltaic power plant with 120 kWp installation power was installed on Buyukcekmece Lake, and the effect of the microclimate data on the produced energy of the system was investigated. Since the energy produced by PV panels is highly dependent on climate effects and there may be many climatic variations depending on the geographical conditions, experimental measurements have been made annually in this study and the results have been analyzed in order to contribute to the researches in this field. From the obtained results, it is seen that the most important factor that positively affects the energy produced is solar irradiance, while specific humidity, wave loads, and module temperature have a negative effect.