Albania's initial floating PV project now unfinished

• Norway's Statkraft is developing a 2 MW floating PV array, first announced a year and also a half back, at its 72 MW hydropower plant in Albania's Elbasan region. Norwegian floating PV expert Ocean Sun has agreed to provide technology for the EUR2 million plant.

Norway's Statkraft has actually started servicing a 2 MW floating PV project, first revealed in January 2019, at the Banja hydropower reservoir in Albania.

It is creating the EUR2 million plant in partnership with Norwegian floating PV professional Ocean Sun. The project is being developed at a tank linked to its Banja HPP 72 MW hydropower plant.

"Now that all governing approvals remain in area, we have actually provided a notification to proceed to Ocean Sun for executing the very first phase of the project," said Tom Kristian Larsen, Statkraft's head consultant of IP approach and asset administration.

The company informed pv magazine that the first proposal was submitted by unique purpose lorry Statkraft Renewables Albania to the Albanian Ministry of Energy and Industry in mid-December 2018. Its first 500 kW phase will be settled by the end of this year, while the second 1.5 MW phase will certainly be finished in 2021, the firm claimed.

The plant will likely market power to the grid under a managed tariff. PV projects as much as 2 MW in size ability are eligible for a feed-in toll under Albanian laws. Nonetheless, it is vague under which criteria the ministry is accepting projects.

In a recent interview with pv magazine, Ocean Sun CEO Borge Bjorneklett explained his firm's ingenious design for floating PV projects in near-shore areas as well as semi-sheltered waters. Its patented system consists of a floating buoyancy ring secured to the seabed, with 4 mooring points and also 12 lines.