Feasibility Study of Floating Solar PV System in Rwanda: Case Study Ntaruka Hydropower Reservoir

Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FSPV) systems, also known as floatovoltaics, are a rapidly increasing emerging technology sector in which solar Photovoltaic systems are installed directly on water bodies. When contrasted to its land-based counterpart, the FSPV system offers significant benefits such as increased panel efficiency, the elimination of land-related costs, and the saving of land for other purposes, as well as environmental benefits such as reservoir water conservation and algae boom containment. The purpose of this study was to look at the feasibility of installing a floating PV system at the Ntaruka hydropower reservoir in order to reduce water evaporation, improve PV cell efficiency, and liberate up land for other activities. Projections of load demand for the site were addressed in this paper based on electrical appliances and are expected to be 274.88 kWh/day, with a maximum demand of 131. SSkW. The floating PV system was designed so that it can satisfy the daily energy load demand of the community electric appliances on the site. The temperature and wind speed were major contributory factors to PV cell efficiency drops and low power output on the land.

I. Introduction

Floating solar has vast probable in areas where difficult terrain or land constraints make ground-mounted systems impractical.Recently, PV energy, which depends on solar panels to produce electricity, has become one of the world’s most popular options for power generation [1]. Floating PV system is just like any other PV systems, but the PV system is mounted on top of water with the use of floaters, instead of using the land surface [2].