Potential Root Causes for Failures in Floating PV Systems

Abstract To mitigate climate change and reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, the adoption of renewable energy has grown significantly in the last decade. Solar energy as one of the major renewable resources is taking up more and more share of green energy in the world. However, one problem of deploying large-scale photovoltaic (PV) system is the required land usage, especially for the countries with land scarcity and high population density. To overcome this issue, floating PV (FPV) systems have emerged as an interesting option. It has been more than 15 years since the first FPV system was installed in Aichi, Japan. Since then, different FPV technologies have been developed. Despite their potential advantages, many issues arise due to the harsher environmental conditions and the more complex configuration of FPV system compared to conventional ground-mounted installations. This paper aims to conduct an analysis of potential root causes for failures in FPV systems during the operation and maintenance, which is based on FPV systems monitored by the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) and other literature sources. Besides, an introduction of the development of FPV system and a review of current float technologies are also presented. Finally, a summary of the challenges and an outlook of the opportunities for the deployment of FPV systems is provided.