Solar panels have become obsolete, or at least that is the idea held by photovoltaic energy experts. The impact on natural ecosystems (including deserts such as those in Arizona) is generating discontent among environmentalists. Perhaps for that reason, America has just presented a project to cover the sea with this, creating a terrifying landscape that will supply large regions of our country with clean electricity.
Goodbye to solar panels: The future is this floating, unprecedented technology
From Sonoma County in California, Healdsburg is now home to the largest floating solar farm in the United States. This is a novel project that was initiated by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), and Ciel & Terre – the leading floating solar company – intends to become the benchmark of power generation from water in the future.
The largest is Healdsburg Floating Solar Farm, which has an astounding power production capacity of 4.78 MW that is sufficient for the needs of one thousand two hundred houses a year. The project consists of about 10,944 solar photovoltaic panels that float on a 20-acre reservoir to optimize the use of water in the process.
The construction of the Healdsburg Floating Solar Farm started in 2019 when SCP and the City of Healdsburg signed a memorandum that aimed at conducting a study on the possibilities of developing a floating solar project. Following a series of research projects and acquiring the relevant licenses for construction, the construction project was fully completed in 2022.
A floating platform with photovoltaic “supercells”: More than 4 MW of energy on the water
The design of the project is unusual because it includes a floating platform system created by Ciel & Terre. The layout of this system is to bear bad weather, including strong winds and intense rainfalls, thus enabling the project to run uninterruptedly and optimally.
However, the most appreciable feature of the Healdsburg Floating Solar Farm is that it is located on floaters in a reservoir.
That is why the successful implementation of the Healdsburg Floating Solar Farm is a successful example of future expansion, as is the search for similar projects in the region. In fact, it is one of the few floating solar plants in the Americas that has not been opposed by environmental groups (perhaps because it is located in a reservoir with little natural diversity).
The future could be even more ambitious: How could these floating solar panels change our way of generating energy?
More information regarding this bipartite partnership will be sought by both SCP and the City of Healdsburg with the aim of achieving other ways of advancing the use of renewable energy sources towards the improvement of the future. The above project has not only tangible benefits in the generation of electrical energy but also the following:.
Besides, without evaporation losses, the floating solar farm helps save the water reserve, which is imperative in states subject to droughts such as California. Also, this project has employment opportunities during development, and afterward, the city of Ketchikan will benefit from the sales revenue of renewable energy.
Experts are already talking about a change in the way we generate energy (and so are we in the subtitle, for humor’s sake). The truth is that more and more people are betting on offshore projects that, by the way, are getting more subsidies from the Biden administration, according to the White House itself in its green transition plan for 2024.
There was a time when floating solar panels were considered impossible, but then their viability was demonstrated with projects like Flotus, which we told you about not more than a week ago. However, it remains to be seen whether offshore energy can be expanded beyond photovoltaic and wind power, as diversification is a strategy that the IEA (International Energy Agency) recommends to countries like ours with great opportunities to generate electricity from renewable sources.
