- Covering 1% of Africa’s reservoirs with floating solar panels could double energy generation capacity.
- Floating solar panels could reduce evaporation and increase hydroelectric turbines capacity by 170 gigawatt-hours a year.
With increasing droughts decreasing power supply from hydropower dams across Africa, floating solar power plants can be a solution. Floating solar panels on hydro dams could generate energy and utilise existing power lines while reducing water losses due to evaporation.
The potentials for these hybrid power plants are huge on the continent. For example, researchers at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, in a study, noted that if only 1% of the continent’s reservoirs are covered with floating solar panels, energy generation capacity could double to 58GW, a 25 per cent increase in the continent’s cumulative power generation capacity.
Floating solar panels also provide a cheaper alternative to constructing new dams without environmental and social challenges from flooding more land. According to the study, floating solar panels could reduce evaporation and save about one cubic kilometre of water annually, enough to increase the capacity of hydroelectric turbines by 170 gigawatt-hours a year.
Kenya already has plans to deploy floating solar on three Tana and Turkwel rivers reservoirs. Other hydroelectric reservoirs with large surface areas suitable for conversion include those behind the Kainji dam in Nigeria, the Merowe and Roseires dams in Sudan, the Buyo in Cote d’Ivoire, the Lagdo in Cameroon, and the Mtera in Tanzania.
The deployment of floating solar panels has seen increased popularity in recent years. Over 35 countries today have an estimated 350 floating systems with a total capacity of about 2.6 GW. However, as the number of floating solar projects increase, It is expected to become the third pillar in solar power deployment after rooftop and ground deployment.