Floating Photovoltaics in Spain: Analysis of the Sierra Brava Power Plant

Increasing photovoltaic energy production is one of the most cost-effective strategies to reduce energy associated CO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> emissions. As such, global deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems has been growing firmly. Installing PV systems on water surfaces (floating PV or FPV) is a promising solution to sustain such growth, as it utilizes water surfaces to produce energy. Here, we present an analysis of the energy production of the FPV plant in Sierra Brava, Spain. The plant uses different floating PV technologies, as well as distinct azimuthal orientations and inclinations. Using the software PVSyst, the energy production of the two different fields of the power plant is estimated and compared with the actual production data, for the period between February 3<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">rd</sup> and February 27<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">th</sup>, 2022. The energy production gain from placing the PV system on water instead of land was also estimated. It was observed that for the FPV configurations analyzed, there was a good agreement between the simulated and measured results, thus validating the model.