Ocean Sun asks for faster floating PV permitting, eyes utility-scale projects

• Floating solar system supplier Ocean Sun is preparing to scale up the utility-scale deployment of its technology as its management requires more regulative frameworks to unlock the potential of the floating PV segment.

The company has developed a floating power system that features solar panels mounted on a polymer membrane, with the development installed at a host of pilot projects in nations such as Albania and the Philippines.

The firm has actually currently faced regulatory hurdles when seeking to mount its systems in its home market of Norway. "There's a great deal of different agencies getting involved that have actually never taken care of floating solar, so it takes years. That needs to be repaired," stated chief commercial police officer Alexander Telje.

With the European Union ramping up its solar release targets, Telje has actually gotten in touch with governments to quicken permitting to accelerate floating solar deployment throughout Europe. "It's not the money, it's not the project, it's actually the regulatory framework that holds us back," he told PV Tech.

The EU's Solar Energy Strategy, released earlier this month together with its REPowerEU plan, requires the bloc to "radically step up a gear" in terms of solar release as well as reach 740GWdc installed by 2030.

With the expansion in utility-scale PV projects increasingly facing contending uses of land and also public acceptance challenges, the solar strategy keeps in mind the possibility for "cutting-edge types of deployment" such as agrivoltaics and floating solar.

" Offshore solar installments stand for a wonderful prospective," the strategy reads, while it likewise highlighted the opportunity of using the surface of man-made lakes produced by hydroelectric dams for releasing floating PV.

Co-locating floating solar with hydropower "is a piece of cake since the whole system then runs like a battery", Telje claimed.

Ocean Sun last year mounted a 500kW floating PV project at a hydropower plant in Albania possessed by Norwegian energy giant Statkraft as part of a collaboration that will certainly cause 2MWp of floating solar deployed at the site.

After finishing an initial public offering in 2020 to secure capital to fund its development, Ocean Sun has actually raised its focus on project advancement in a range of locations as it streamlines its supply chain to assist it relocate from smaller systems to utility scale.

A collaboration with developer MP Quantum Group will certainly see both aim to deploy multiple floating solar setups in Greece and also Cyprus in the coming years.

Along with system design confirmations by DNV, Ocean Sun has actually executed tests with TÜV Rheinland and also GCL System Assimilation Innovation in which the latter's panels are submerged in seawater in order to secure guarantees and warranties. "For insurance and also bankability, these things require to be in position," Telje stated.

He included that Ocean Sun is reaching the position to boost module purchase from tier-one makers and mount even more utility-scale plants. "I assume we're visiting fairly a jump in regards to the rollout."