Use floating solar panels

This past weekend, BBC technology programme Click featured a new way of floating solar panels that should solve a batch of problems for SA.

In the programme, the solar panels appeared to be printed or glued on sheets of tough polymer and were flexible enough to move with the wavelets beneath them. The circular polymer sheet was surrounded by inflatable walls and it looked like a large version of a blow-up swimming pool with the panels on the bottom. In the programme, there were several of these circular floats anchored in the sea off Norway, so they must be tough enough to weather any conditions.

So what problems does the solar float solve? Well, it produces electricity and because the solar panels are kept cool by the water below, they should be more efficient than normal solar farms, where the performance goes off 10% to 25% when they get hot. If we floated solar panels on our dams, they would produce electricity, while reducing evaporation losses. The dam water would keep the panels cool and efficient, and algal growth would be reduced because there would be less sunlight penetrating the water.

SA’s large, shallow dams lose significant volumes of water to evaporation in the summer months, and algae is becoming a problem as the nutrients in dam water increase as a result of runoff from fertilised farm lands and from sewage spills. The circular floating units will be rather like lily pads and there will always be gaps between them to ensure the water is aerated.

There are two further advantages. No land has to be sacrificed or rented and it will be hard to steal solar panels floating in the middle of a dam.

Janine Myburgh President: Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry