Empirical research on the efficiency of floating PV systems

The floating photovoltaic system is a new energy technology concept to meet the increasing energy requirements of our time. The system integrates existing land-based photovoltaic technologies with a newly-developed floating photovoltaic technology. K-water installed a 100 kW commercial demonstration plant at Hapcheon Dam, Korea in 2011. K-water also leads the domestic and overseas floating photovoltaic markets and installed the world's largest 500 kW floating photovoltaic facility at the time of its construction in 2012. Also, in October 2013, K-water tested the operation of an 11 kW ocean-floating photovoltaic demonstration plant (for research purposes) at the inland sea of the Sihwa Embankment in order to test the applicability of floating photovoltaic systems at sea. In this paper, the empirical data from 100 kW and 500 kW floating PV systems; a 100 kW tracking-type, floating PV system in a reservoir; and an 11 kW ocean-floating PV system were analyzed to determine their performance.