DNV is spearheading a joint industry project involving 24 of the sector’s leaders to develop what it says is the world’s first recommended practice on the design, development, and operation of floating PV (FPV) systems.
In 2021 it introduced DNV-RP-0584 as the first step on the path towards FPV standards and certification.
The company is now looking to develop best practices for the design of FPV-specific anchoring and mooring structures.
Based on a selection of floating solar concepts, the project – which gathers stakeholders from all areas of the FPV field – will address a variety of challenges expected when deploying installations in larger islands with shallow drafts.
It is also developing a unified FPV-specific floats design, testing and qualification standard that will introduce clearer, faster and cheaper performance-based procedures that are layout-neutral and failure-mode-specific.
Global installed floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) capacity is expected to reach 10GW by 2025, according to DNV.
The potential global capacity for deploying floating solar is currently 4 TWh, it said.
After a slow start, the FPV market had grown to 2GW global installed capacity in 2020. DNV foresees a total of 7-11GW will be installed by 2025 with a major increase from 2023 onwards.
While large scale ground-mounted photovoltaic development may be more challenging due to difficult terrain or land scarcity, many water bodies remain largely available for power generation making the business case for FPV extremely attractive, it said.
However, standards applicable to FPV “are still largely lacking, potentially leading to project delays and obstacles in permitting and authorization, which can be an issue for the utility-scale renewables industry” it said.
DNV global segment lead for solar power, energy Systems Dana Olson said: “FPV structures present unique challenges to the solar industry due to specific hydrodynamic loads, risks of corrosion and specific components, such as floats, anchors and mooring lines.”
“The use of industry standards will ultimately lead to higher quality, lower failure rates and more adequate access to data-driven digital solutions and assurance services like verification and certification”, said Juan Carlos Arévalo, executive vice president at GPM&S, a DNV company.