Techno-economic Analysis of 1 MWp Floating Solar PV Plant

Abstract

The Floating PV system is a new technology of generating electric power from solar energy. In the FPV system, the solar panels are situated on water instead of ground to increase their generation efficiency. The PV panels will be at a lower temperature because of the water cooling effect. They have a negative power temperature coefficient. So power generation increases as panel temperature decreases. The ground-mounted PV power plants require huge land and thus it will be difficult to set up such plants in metro cities. On the other hand, the FPV plant doesn't require huge land as the whole system will be floating on the water body and hence precious land will be saved. The FPV plant also causes positive environmental impact like it significantly reduces water evaporation rate and algae bloom. This paper presents a techno-economic analysis of a proposed 1 MWp FPV plant at Ambazari Lake, Nagpur, state Maharashtra, India. The generation efficiency of the FPV plant will be 2.5-3% more than conventional type ground-mounted PV plant and 191 million liters of water will be saved annually from evaporation. The energy generation and cost of electricity are found out to be about 1614 MWh per year and 3 INR/kWh for the selected location. The FPV plant will be responsible for reducing the gap between electrical energy demand and supply. It provides more environmental benefits as compared to ground-mounted solar PV plants.