Floating solar power plant for sustainable development: A techno-economic analysis

The primary source of energy is depleting day by day owing to an increase in per capita energy consumption. To ensure energy security, to minimize climate change problems and to guarantee sustainable development, the useful utilization of renewable energy potential is of utmost importance. Recent researches reveal significant environmental effects in utilization of photovoltaic technology in large power plants located in urban locations. Further observations depict that the ground mounted PV power plants occupy large land spaces in the modern cities. These have led to the escalation of land price which has resulted in increasing the levelized tariff of electricity. Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FSPV) is an alternative to mitigate the aforesaid problems. In this article, a techno-economic feasibility of a 10 MW FSPV plant is done to show the economic viability and environmental suitability in maintaining ecological balance through adoption of floating solar photovoltaic technology as compared to conventional ground mounted PV systems. The results show that floating solar photovoltaic power plant has 10.2% more generating capacity than land based PV system and producing 28.38 MU excess generation over the life cycle of the plant. The FSPV plant will save the land cost burden of USD 352125 and water cess burden of USD 47,600. This results in reducing the levelized tariff of FSPV plant to USD 0.026/kWh which is 39% less than land based PV power plant. The FSPV plant will also save 92,945.92 MT of Coal and a total CO2 emission of 340,801.74 ton. The FSPV power plant will help to bridge the gap between energy demand and supply along with reducing the cost of electricity and protecting the environment.