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Posted on 06/14/2022 4:07:17 PM PDT by American Number 181269513
Floating solar had a moment in the spotlight over the weekend when the US Army unveiled a new solar plant sitting atop the Big Muddy Lake at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. It’s the first floating solar array deployed by the Department of Defense, and it’s part of a growing current of support in the US for “floatovoltaics.”
The army says its goal is to boost clean energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and give the nearby training facility a source of backup energy during power outages. The panels will be able to generate about one megawatt of electricity, which can typically power about 190 homes.
The installation, the largest in the US Southeast, is a big win for floatovoltaics, which have yet to make a big splash in the US. They only make up 2 percent of solar installations annually in the country, according to Duke Energy, which collaborated with Fort Bragg and the renewable energy company Ameresco on the project.
Upfront costs for floating solar have typically been slightly more expensive than for its land-based counterparts. The panels essentially sit on a sort of raft that’s tethered to the bottom of the body of water. But floatovoltaics come with unique benefits. Hotter temperatures make it harder for solar panels to produce as much power from the same amount of sunshine. Luckily, sitting atop water has a cooling effect, which allows the panels to generate more electricity than panels on land. That makes floating solar more efficient and makes up for higher installation costs over time.
And while solar in general has already become the cheapest electricity source globally, it’s pretty land-hungry. A solar farm might take up 20 times more land than a fossil fuel power plant to produce a gigawatt of electricity. Solar projects in the US have already run into conflict with some farmers who want to use the same land, for example, and with some conservationists worried about the impact on desert ecosystems.
Floatovoltaics, in contrast, might be able to avoid some of those tensions. In the US, they’re more common on human-made bodies of water like reservoirs or canals. These are easier to build on and are less likely to have as big of an impact on sensitive ecosystems as installations built on natural ecosystems like deserts. Covering just 10 percent of the world’s hydropower reservoirs with floatovoltaics could generate as much electricity as all the world’s operating fossil fuel power plants combined, as researchers pointed out in a recent commentary in the journal Nature. The added benefit is that the panels reduce evaporation — an especially important feature in dry areas where water levels are falling fast. Drought-stricken California is even piloting a project to line irrigation canals with solar panels.
All this has the potential to help solar gain a stronger foothold in the US. Solar still only makes up just under 3 percent of the US’s electricity mix. Wind power accounts for about three times as much electricity in the US. But floating solar has already made a splash outside of the US, especially in places with less abundant land, like Japan.
All renewables will need to scale up drastically to meet US and global climate goals. The Biden administration has set goals of getting to a 100 percent clean energy power grid by 2035 as well as reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. That’s what’s needed globally to achieve targets agreed upon by much of the world under the Paris climate accord.
The US Department of Defense is one of the biggest polluters on the planet, with the US military releasing more greenhouse gas emissions annually than some 140 nations. So the new floating solar plant at Fort Bragg is sorely needed as a source of clean energy. In February, the US Army released its own “climate strategy” for reaching net zero emissions by the middle of the century.
Tackling climate change is in the army’s own self-interest, too. “For the foreseeable future, climate impacts will disrupt Army activities,” the army’s climate strategy says. That includes potential power outages. Fort Bragg’s new floatovoltaic array is also equipped with a 2-megawatt battery for just such an emergency — say, if a hurricane knocks out power to the area. The army wants “enough renewable energy generation and battery storage capacity to self-sustain its critical missions” on all its installations by 2040.
Interesting claim. Overall, a good article with many reference links embedded.
They better have backup sources of energy, that’s a pretty big target.
They will also help to reduce the evaporation of the water. However, a lot (most?) of the impoundments also hold fish and are used for recreation. I’m guessing the environmentalists will limit their use to certain areas.
If anything big is blown on that during a storm it will destroy it.
> The army says its goal is to boost clean energy... <
Silly me. A thought the army’s goal was to defend the country, period.
Guys, I know you are landlubbers, but hurricanes have this nasty habit of smashing up and sining things that are afloat. The Navy gets so tired of their stuff getting busted up that if a hurricane is headed for a port the Navy moves its ships out of the way if they can. I know of one submarine that could not get under way and so they submerged it at the pier and put it on the bottom. It sustained only minor damage. But that's a nuclear submarine, not a bunch of floating solar panels.
Covering just 10 percent of the world’s hydropower reservoirs with floatovoltaics could generate as much electricity as all the world’s operating fossil fuel power plants combined, as researchers pointed out in a recent commentary in the journal Nature.
he left out this part; During the day, if the sun is out. I call B.S on the entire statement.
The army says its goal is to boost clean energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and give the nearby training facility a source of backup energy during power outages. …. . . and give our enemies a lot to laugh at us about.
Great, now the solar panels can kill the fish just like the windmills kill the birds.
What is the insignia for the Solar Force?
Remember the double lightening bolt and the rising sun have already been used elsewhere.
Yep! No environmental impacts with that crap...
The army just gets more and more insane...
Even the French army was never this worthless...
Let Ukraine have it to see how it works first under battlefield conditions
“Floating solar had a moment in the spotlight over the weekend when the US Army unveiled a new solar plant sitting atop the Big Muddy Lake at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. “
Take that Putin, you PIECE OF CRAP. You don’t stand a chance with that ‘polluting’ fuel!!! And that’s because we care, you Planet-Destroying BEAST!!!
No way Putin wins, especially with Greta directing our Green Troops!!!
“The army says its goal is to boost clean energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions...”
How about a goal of winning a freaking war ...you losers. We’re Biden’d.
For people wondering why Putin is blasting the crap out of Ukraine with an infinite inventory of our munitions, while our inventories were pretty much cleaned out over a month ago...yet we spend 10 TIMES MORE on our military!
...you now have one of the many, many, reasons.
“...floating solar plant at Fort Bragg...”
Soon to be renamed Fort Buttigieg.
Horrible and stupid. You screw up the whole lake. Those panels are filled with heavy metals that will pollute the water. The lake will instantly be a no wake no boat lake. Al for the retarded idea of Gaia and the global warming hoax.
What toxic metals are in solar panels?....
Toxic metals like lead and cadmium may also be present in solar panels. Solar panels may contain critical materialsExit Exit EPA website, including aluminum, tin, tellurium, and antimony, lead, cadmium, silver, as well as gallium and indium in some thin-film modules.
That’s gonna be great for the water supply and groundwater.
The next Love Canal.
Are Broken solar panels toxic?
Solar panels are composed of photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert sunlight to electricity. When these panels enter landfills, valuable resources go to waste. And because solar panels contain toxic materials like lead that can leach out as they break down, landfilling also creates new environmental hazards
https://www.wired.com/story/solar-panels-are-starting-to-die-leaving-behind-toxic-trash/
Let’s call it what it is...”interesting quackery.”
How long before they discover shading a million square miles of water is a bad idea? Before long, they will find all sorts of foreseeable problems: algae growth in the water, ducks and other waterfowl looking for nesting places, water temperatures drop changing the aquaculture, geese pooping all over the solar arrays and no way to clean them, minerals and salt spray corroding the metals and on and on.
This is a stupid idea and a non-starter.
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