Floating PV system as an alternative pathway to the amazon dam underproduction

With increasing electric demand and the continued underproduction of existing dams and the environmental and social concerns of traditional hydropower dam expansion in the Amazon region, alternative power sources are needed to meet future power needs. Recently, large-scale deployment of photovoltaic (PV) systems has gained more interest globally, mainly because of the improved technology and rapid price decrease. Although solar power in Brazil makes up a small percentage of its generation mix, large-scale deployment could potentially be one of the promising solutions for offsetting dams' underproduction. This work evaluates the benefits of adding floating PV (FPV) systems on system adequacy. FPV systems are integrated alongside existing dams to enhance the existing power sources and provide an alternative pathway to meet the increasing power demand without the need for more dams. System adequacy is evaluated with the current production of dams and the required capacities of FPV systems to compensate for the current underproduction of dams. Furthermore, the correlation between PV output and system load is evaluated, and the environmental and social concerns associated with dam expansion in the Amazon basin are briefly discussed. The results indicate that the investment toward installing FPV systems on the dams' reservoirs leads to a significant improvement to the overall system reliability, minimize load curtailment, and could potentially add more flexibility to the operator to dispatch power generated by hydropower plants during peak demands.

Automated summary

The study evaluates the potential of introducing floating PV systems in the Amazon region to offset the inadequacy of existing hydropower sources, highlighting the potential to improve system reliability and reduce load curtailment. Additionally, environmental and social concerns associated with dam expansion are discussed.