https://archive.md/YPUNr
"Putting solar panels on water to generate power sounded like a dangerous
gimmick to Benedikt Ortmann when he first heard about the idea.
“Every child knows electricity and water don’t mix,” said Ortmann, the top
solar executive at Munich’s Baywa r.e., one of Europe’s biggest renewable
energy developers.
When Ortmann installed his first array of floating panels back in 2018, Baywa
r.e.’s business was mostly made up of traditional ground-mounted solar. But
five years later, the company is now Europe’s leading producer of floating
photovoltaics, otherwise known as FPVs, or “floatovoltaics” in industry
parlance. While floating solar represented less than 1% of all panels installed
globally last year, their use has grown more than 2,000% in the last decade.
And increasingly, they’re being installed on bodies of water in former coal
pits and stone quarries, and in hydropower lagoons.
One driving factor behind this shift is the explosive uptake of solar panels on
European rooftops over the past two decades, which has put pressure on finding
new real estate for renewables. Subsequent efforts to build in rural areas have
been complicated by pushback from farmers and locals upset at the prospect of
panels spoiling their views. “Agriculture still sees solar panels as a threat
that competes for the same land,” said Matthias Taft, chief executive officer
of Baywa r.e.
Floatovoltaics sidestep this issue, and are able to breathe life into sites
that have fallen into neglect. “Most of these former gravel and sand pits
aren’t used anymore. They’re low-hanging fruit,” Taft said."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-breastfeeding-trachoma-iraq-golden-lion-tamarin-brazil/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
