PROJECT

Floating Solar in the Swan River

Floating Solar in the Swan River

Supervisors

Project Description

Mounting solar power panels on a floating structure that is moored in a water body provides an innovative form of renewable energy often referred to as ‘floating solar’. The global installed capacity of floating solar is 1.1GW (2018 figures), but has potential to grow because it is does not require land use, may be used to locally power offshore floating structures and offers potential technical advantages such as natural cooling (by the water beneath). Other potential advantages include reduced evaporation (again of the underlying water body) and containment of algae blooms.

Nevertheless, before floating solar can become a widely adopted technology there are open questions to be studied. These include understanding the efficiency of the solar panels when subjected to salt spray and wave overwash, as well as the local pressures created under colliding bores associated with overwash.

In this project, two solar panels will be purchased and deployed in the river – one will have elevated panels to avoid overwash and the second will have less elevation (allowing overwash). Comparisons will allow for the effects of overwash to be investigated on a wave-by-wave and on a longer term basis. The two panels may also be used to compare efficiency far from the river (with no salt spray) and on the river (with spray).

In addition to the field-testing, tests will be conducted in the 50 m long wave flume located within the Coastal and Offshore Engineering Laboratory at UWA. Overwash and the collision of bores will be examined in detail to understand the local pressures expected on the panels, and potential associated damage.