https://www.ecowatch.com/floating-solar-farms-oceans.html
"Floating solar farms are solar panels that are installed on the surface of
bodies of water — such as lakes and reservoirs — to save space on land or
provide electricity to remote locations.
Now, engineers and scientists are beginning to develop ways to put solar farms
on the surface of the ocean to bring electricity to isolated places, such as
the island nation of Indonesia, where more than a million people are without
access to electricity, reported
BBC News.
“[I]n this situation it’s hard to connect a cable to them and it’s hard to
install other expensive solutions such as wind turbines,” said assistant
professor of mechanical engineering at Cranfield University Dr. Luofeng Huang,
as
BBC News reported.
According to the International Energy Agency, solar is becoming the least
expensive choice for the creation of new power plants.
A study published last year in the journal
Nature found that if 10 percent of
the planet’s hydropower reservoirs were covered with floating solar panels,
4,000 gigawatts of electricity could be generated — as much as all the fossil
fuel power plants in the world.
While solar farms may be cheaper, they still use space that could be used for
things like farming and housing.
Enter floating solar panels on the surface of the ocean.
“Floating solar is very convenient because it can just be put on top of the
water, and if you need more electricity you can put on more solar panels,” said
Huang, as reported by
BBC News."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-maternal-health-india-ocean-conservation-canada-palm-oil/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
