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Offshore floating PV can provide 35,000TWh of electricity in parts of Southeast Asia and West Africa
Studies have shown that floating photovoltaic systems installed on the calm seas of the equator can provide unlimited energy to populated areas in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Floating PV systems can be installed on inland lakes and reservoirs, as well as offshore.
While most of the world's oceans experience storms, some equatorial regions have good ocean conditions. The waves in most of the world's seas exceed 10 meters, and the wind speed exceeds 20 meters per second. Several developers are working on engineered defenses for offshore floating PV systems that can withstand storms. Most of the areas with good marine environment are close to the equator, where the waves do not exceed 6 meters and the wind speed does not exceed 15 m/s, such as Indonesia and West Africa. These areas have fast population growth and rapid economic development, and the installation of offshore floating photovoltaic systems can help resolve land use conflicts. Moreover, the defenses for installing offshore floating photovoltaic systems do not need to be so strong and costly.
Indonesia is a densely populated country, especially in Java, Bali and Sumatra. Fortunately, Indonesia has the option of installing a large number of floating PV systems in calm inland seas. Indonesia's 6.4 million square kilometers of ocean area is 200 times the area of floating photovoltaic systems needed to meet all of Indonesia's future energy needs. A recent paper by the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) pointed out that in the past 40 years, about 140,000 square kilometers of sea area in Indonesia have not experienced waves above 4 meters, nor have they experienced strong winds above 10 meters per second. . This area of ocean is enough for the floating photovoltaic system to generate approximately 35,000TWh of electricity per year, which exceeds the current total power generation of all energy sources in the world (30,000TWh per year).
The offshore floating photovoltaic industry is still in its infancy. Compared with terrestrial photovoltaic systems, offshore photovoltaic panels have some inherent disadvantages, including seawater corrosion and marine pollution. Shallow seas are the first choice for installing offshore floating photovoltaic systems. As global warming is likely to alter wind and wave patterns, there is a need to minimize impacts on the marine environment and fisheries.
Despite these challenges, offshore floating PV systems could provide most of the electricity for countries in the calm waters of the equator. By mid-century, around one billion people in these countries are expected to rely primarily on photovoltaic power generation. This will lead to the fastest energy change in history.
