A hybrid of floating solar panels and hydroelectric power plants has great prospects

No one will deny that hydroelectric power plants are the most important part of the entire world energy. And the latest scientific research by scientists has shown that hydroelectric power plants, with their platinum and reservoirs, have huge potential for even more energy production.

Indeed, according to scientific analysis, the potential for combining floating solar installations with hydroelectric power plants can cover almost half of all energy needs on the planet.

Analysis and perspectives of hybrid installations

Serious scientific work was carried out by the staff of the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

All freshwater hydroelectric power plants were thoroughly studied, and their potential for additional location on reservoirs of floating platforms with solar panels was assessed.

The following modernization was proposed: the surplus generated solar energy during daylight hours will be redirected to work hydropower systems in order to accumulate water in storage, and then use it to cover peak consumption loads in the dark days.

Working prototype

At the moment, there is such a hybrid station, but so far in a single copy. And it is located on the dam of the Alto Rabagan River (Portugal).

So there is a floating platform on which 840 panels are installed on a total area of ​​2,500 square meters. Moreover, the capacity of this installation reaches 300 MW.

The company (which owns this pilot project) plans to expand the pilot project and additionally supply a floating platform of 11,000 panels at the Alqueva hydroelectric power station (Portugal).

Prospects for modernization

Thus, according to the NREL analysis, there are about 380,000 hydroelectric power plants suitable for modernization in the world.

So, the additionally installed panels will be capable of delivering about 10 600 TW * h of electricity to existing networks per year.

This is a colossal amount of energy, because, according to official data, in 2018 the total energy consumption on Earth was about 22,300 TWh.

The conducted scientific research is intended, first of all, to demonstrate the huge potential for increasing the production of clean energy without allocating additional land for this.

Further research in this direction can more specifically outline the prospects for such modernization and perhaps we will see such hybrid installations around the world.

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