11 Solar Photovoltaics on Land, Water, and Buildings
289
Fig. 11.3 The Villanueva solar PV plant in Mexico has a capacity of 0.754 GW, approaching the
Giga-Watt scale. It is the largest plant in the Americas. Credits: Enel Green Power
cost per kWh of solar electricity. On the other hand, to be profitable, these
plants require excellent and very stable connections to the grid.
Business model: The overall 754 MW Villanueva facility is supported by a
contract allowing the sale of specified volumes of energy for 15 years and clean
energy certificates for 20 years to Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission
(Comisión Federal de Electricidad).
11.3 Solar on Water
Floating solar systems can represent an alternative to ground mounted-solar systems.
At present, the international market for floating PV is small compared to the total
PV market and mostly limited to R&D projects [2]. A main driver for the growth of
the market for floating PV is the reduced availability of land in regions with high
population densities, in cities or on small islands (such as the Netherlands, Malta,
Singapore, Hong Kong) and the cost of land that may become significant in other
regions (e.g. Japan).
Most of the projects carried out so far on floating PV installations were done on
closed fresh water bodies, such as water reservoirs or lakes. A positive side effect
of deploying floating PV in these contexts is that, by casting shadows on the water,
modules and floating platforms will decrease evaporation rates and reduce algae
growth in the reservoirs.
289
Fig. 11.3 The Villanueva solar PV plant in Mexico has a capacity of 0.754 GW, approaching the
Giga-Watt scale. It is the largest plant in the Americas. Credits: Enel Green Power
cost per kWh of solar electricity. On the other hand, to be profitable, these
plants require excellent and very stable connections to the grid.
Business model: The overall 754 MW Villanueva facility is supported by a
contract allowing the sale of specified volumes of energy for 15 years and clean
energy certificates for 20 years to Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission
(Comisión Federal de Electricidad).
11.3 Solar on Water
Floating solar systems can represent an alternative to ground mounted-solar systems.
At present, the international market for floating PV is small compared to the total
PV market and mostly limited to R&D projects [2]. A main driver for the growth of
the market for floating PV is the reduced availability of land in regions with high
population densities, in cities or on small islands (such as the Netherlands, Malta,
Singapore, Hong Kong) and the cost of land that may become significant in other
regions (e.g. Japan).
Most of the projects carried out so far on floating PV installations were done on
closed fresh water bodies, such as water reservoirs or lakes. A positive side effect
of deploying floating PV in these contexts is that, by casting shadows on the water,
modules and floating platforms will decrease evaporation rates and reduce algae
growth in the reservoirs.