第1828期:Floating Solar Panels Becoming Popular

Joe Seaman-Graves is the city planner for the small town of Cohoes, New York. He was in search of a less costly way of providing electricity to the town. There was no extra land to build on. But Cohoes does have a nearly 6-hectare water reservoir. Seaman-Graves looked up the term “floating solar” on Google. He was not familiar with the technology, which has long been a popular way to produce clean energy in Asia. Seaman-Graves learned that the town’s water reservoir could hold enough solar panels to power all city buildings. And that would save the city more than $500,000 each year.

Joe Seaman-Graves 是纽约 Cohoes 小镇的城市规划师。他正在寻找一种成本较低的方式为该镇供电。没有多余的土地可以建房。但 Cohoes 确实有一个近 6 公顷的水库。 Seaman-Graves 在谷歌上查找了“浮动太阳能”一词。他不熟悉这项技术，这项技术长期以来一直是亚洲生产清洁能源的流行方式。 Seaman-Graves 了解到该镇的水库可以容纳足够的太阳能电池板为所有城市建筑供电。这将为该市每年节省超过 500,000 美元。

Floating solar panel projects have seen quick growth as a new form of clean energy in the United States and Asia. Floating solar panes are sought after not just for their clean power, but also because they save water by preventing evaporation. A recent study that appeared in Nature Sustainability found that more than 6,000 cities in 124 countries could produce all of their electricity demand using floating solar. It also found that the panels could save the cities enough water each year to fill 40 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. Zhenzhong Zeng is a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China. He worked on the study. He said American states like Florida, Nevada and California could produce more power with floating solar than they need.

漂浮太阳能电池板项目作为一种新型清洁能源在美国和亚洲发展迅速。漂浮式太阳能电池板之所以受到追捧，不仅是因为它们的清洁能源，还因为它们通过防止蒸发来节约用水。最近发表在《自然可持续性》杂志上的一项研究发现，124 个国家/地区的 6,000 多个城市可以使用漂浮太阳能满足其所有电力需求。它还发现，这些面板每年可以为城市节省足够的水来填满 4000 万个奥林匹克规格的游泳池。曾振中是位于中国深圳的南方科技大学教授。他参与了这项研究。他说，佛罗里达州、内华达州和加利福尼亚州等美国各州可以利用漂浮太阳能生产比他们需要的更多的电力。

The idea of floating solar is simple: attach panels on structures that float on water. The panels serve as a cover that reduces evaporation to nearly zero. The water keeps the panels cool. This permits them to produce more electricity than land-based panels, which lose efficiency when they get too hot. One of the floating solar farms in the U.S. is the 4.8-megawatt project in Healdsburg, California. It was built by Ciel & Terre. The company has built 270 projects in 30 countries.

漂浮太阳能的想法很简单：将面板安装在漂浮在水面上的结构上。这些面板用作将蒸发减少到几乎为零的盖子。水使面板保持凉爽。这使它们能够产生比陆基面板更多的电力，而陆基面板在过热时会失去效率。美国的漂浮太阳能发电场之一是位于加利福尼亚州希尔兹堡的 4.8 兆瓦项目。它由 Ciel & Terre 建造。该公司在 30 个国家建设了 270 个项目。

Chris Bartle of Ciel & Terre estimated that floating solar costs 10 to 15 percent more than land solar at first. But the technology saves money long term. Deeper water can increase setup costs, and the technology cannot operate on fast-moving water, on the open ocean or on coastlines with very large waves. Problems can come up if the solar panels cover too much of a water body’s surface. That could change the water temperature and harm underwater life. Researchers are looking into whether the electromagnetic fields from floating panels could affect underwater ecosystems. However, there is no evidence of that yet.

Ciel & Terre 的 Chris Bartle 估计，漂浮太阳能最初的成本比陆地太阳能高 10% 到 15%。但这项技术可以长期节省资金。更深的水域会增加设置成本，而且该技术无法在快速流动的水域、开阔的海洋或波浪很大的海岸线上运行。如果太阳能电池板覆盖了过多的水体表面，就会出现问题。这可能会改变水温并危害水下生物。研究人员正在研究浮板的电磁场是否会影响水下生态系统。但是，目前还没有证据表明这一点。

In Cohoes, public officials are preparing for the setup of their project later this year. The project will cost an estimated $6.5 million. Seaman-Graves said he believes his town’s floating solar project can serve as an example for other American cities. “We are an environmental justice community and we see a big opportunity for low to moderate income cities to replicate what we’re doing,” he said.

在 Cohoes，公职人员正在准备今年晚些时候启动他们的项目。该项目估计将耗资 650 万美元。 Seaman-Graves 说他相信他镇的漂浮太阳能项目可以作为其他美国城市的榜样。 “我们是一个环境正义社区，我们看到了中低收入城市复制我们正在做的事情的巨大机会，”他说。