The Netherlands has just presented by a consortium of 6 companies that will have the financial support of the Government, the first floating solar power plant, which has been installed in the North Sea.
It is located about 15 km from Scheveningen, the coastal district of The Hague, Oceans of Energy, the firm where the idea emerged, and the University of Utrecht.
The latter investigates this type of electrical production and according to its calculations, the floating plant solar energy can generate up to 15% more than that obtained from plants on land with the installation of similar panels.
However, such a floating platform will need about 3 years of work to be ready.
Allard Van Hoeken, CEO Oceans of Energy (and also elected Engineer of the Year in the Netherlands in 2015) has pointed out that:
“You have to investigate energy alternatives when land is scarce.
But also knowing that the sea is not like the still water of a reservoir, where there are already facilities of this type ”.
An example of this type can be found in China, where a division of the Three Gorges Corporation (specialized in hydroelectric projects), has built one in the east of the country, specifically in the province of Anhui, they have located their platform in an artificial lake created in an old flooded coal mine.
According to Van Hoeken:
“In open water, however, it had not been tried before due to the effects of wind and waves. But with the knowledge of our partners and the Dutch experience in offshore platforms, we will succeed.
The photovoltaic panels used will be like those on land, and their resistance to salt water and inclement weather will be tested "
The interest of floating solar power plants
At the same time and if everything is favorable, the experts of the consortium argue that this type of floating solar energy plants can benefit from the still waters created between the wind farms that currently exist and are in turn connected to the general network.
On the part of the aforementioned University of Utrecht, which will have the responsibility of supervising the works together with the Oceans of Energy firm, it calculates that energy production through this method it could cover a high percentage of the country's demand, up to 75%.
Engineering Award to Allard Van Hoeken
Van Hoeken received the engineering award 3 years ago for having been responsible for a floating platform, which generated energy with the tidal energy of the Wadden Sea, the Wadden Sea.
This platform is located between the North Sea and the Frisian Islands, on one side of the coasts of Holland, Denmark and Germany.
An area with shallow sandbanks where the entire complex was connected to the electrical network of the Dutch island of Texel.
The future of Holland
One of the problems that the Netherlands has are derived from the extraction of natural gas in the northeast of the country, in the province of Groningen, where they have been forced to rethink the sources of energy that are supplied.
In that area is the largest European deposit, but as a result of its intensive extraction has caused earthquakes which can easily reach up to 4,5 degrees on the Ritchet scale.
The natural gas from which they source covers around 40% of national energy needs However, the Government has given the word to reduce said exploitation to half of the figure they currently have, which would be equivalent to about 12.000 million cubic meters, in order to avoid more serious problems.
On the other hand, the use of surface waters under its control was announced by the Dutch Ministry of Environment and Infrastructures, for plans that include renewable energies, among them, floating solar plants.