.: Israeli Company Sees Future In Floating Solar Panels

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Israeli Company Sees Future In Floating Solar Panels

Photo-voltaic (PV) arrays offer a variety of attractive features. They are quiet, reliable, and durable.

They also have some drawbacks. Tree, buildings, and terrain can conspire to hide the sun. Heat buildup under the array reduces PV efficiency. The arrays add structural and wind stress to the supporting roof. The roofline may not be oriented to provide optimal surface area to the sun and may not be of sufficient surface area to provide adequate power for the home. Finally (my favorite), roof-mounted PV arrays provide the perfect hiding place for your kid’s Frisbee.

The article below reports that an Israeli company, Solaris Synergy (http://www.solaris-synergy.com/), has developed a scalable, floating array that takes advantage of large bodies of water. A floating array has the advantage of an unobstructed view of the sky. Further, the water serves to cool the array by dissipating heat, increasing efficiency.

The following article can be found at Israel National News, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143904.

by Gavriel Queenann

Israel's Solaris Synergy is one of the companies to see a future in floating solar panels, Green Economy reports.

Such panels would float on agricultural and mining ponds, hydroelectric reservoirs and canals, and similar locations.

In addition to being an efficient use of space, floating solar panels have other economic benefits attached. First, they minimize the use of steel, which is the main cost in the production of land-based panels. Second, the water's cooling effect can increase electricity production over typical ground-mounted systems. And third, a solar system floating on water also reduces water evaporation 70%, while inhibiting destructive algae growth by blocking sunlight on the water.
Solaris engineers say such systems can produce up to 2 MW of electricity per mile.

Solaris has installed its first live floating concentrated photovoltaic (F-CPV) system connected to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) grid. The system is based at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies' Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation located on Kibbutz Ketura, 30 kilometers north of Eilat.

The project is part of Capital Nature Experimentum, a verification and inspection center for new technologies developed by renewable energy companies.

"This installation is a milestone for us," Solaris Synery CEO Yossi Fisher said. "We're confident that it's just the first of many future Solaris implementations in Israel and throughout the world."

Solaris Synergy also plans to float a solar array on a reservoir in the south of France in a trial with French utility EDF.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)

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This blog serves as a resource for current articles, ideas, products, websites, and blogs about alternative energy and other "green issues."

I am a 21-year veteran of the U. S. Navy Submarine Service, serving as an Electronic Technician, Electronic Material Officer, and Master Training Specialist.

I teach Tidewater Community College's new Alternative Energy course. I have been interested in alternatives to fossil fuels for many years. I love teaching about this exciting new growth field.

Commitment to using alternative energy will benefit the environment and free US foreign policy from being concerned with the availability of oil from other countries.

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Go green energy,

Bruce Bremer, MBA

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Alternative Energy Quotes

Not only will atomic power be released, but someday we will harness the rise and fall of the tides and imprison the rays of the sun.

THOMAS A. EDISON

The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

ECCLESIASTES 1:6

You can drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on every continental shelf and atop every hill in America for that matter, and you still won't reverse the fact that our oil production is in permanent decline. We're just sopping up what's left, digging ourselves into a deeper hole.

CONGRESSMAN ROSCOE BARTLETT (R-MD) “A tank of gas, a world of trouble,” Chicago Tribune

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

RALPH NADER

To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.

BARACK OBAMA

But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.

Nikola Tesla

We've embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil. Embrace the future and recognize the growing demand for a wide range of fuels or ignore reality and slowly—but surely—be left behind.

MIKE BOWLIN chairman and CEO of ARCO (now BP)

Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the crack cocaine of the developing world.

ALAN ZAREMBO, L.A. Times

But for all the talk, clean-burning coal will likely remain an oxymoron for years to come. The utility industry, which uses coal to generate 52% of its electricity, faces formidable political, economic and technological obstacles to getting "clean." … Coal contains dozens of noxious chemicals, including lead, arsenic and other heavy metals; sulfur dioxide, which creates acid rain; nitrogen oxides, which create smog; tiny soot particles, which can invade and collect in human lungs; mercury, a toxic metal that accumulates in animals, fish and the humans who eat them; and carbon dioxide, which many scientists believe is artificially warming Earth's atmosphere by trapping more heat from the sun.

JOHN J. FIALKA Wall Street Journal

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

ARTHUR C. CLARKE