A pioneering study conducted by Pomona College senior, Abe McKay, found that “pairing water and solar could increase production efficiency by 8-10% through panel cooling, save millions of liters of water from evaporation and also produce energy with under-utilized space” [17]. Locating PV panels on water bodies, such as the reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams, boosts the PV panel’s efficiency and makes use of unutilized space.
The water from reservoirs has a dual function, in cleaning and cooling the PV panels, and also serves as a perfect setting for the panels because the surfaces are perfectly flat, do not have any shade and have no alternative use issues. The added benefit is that installing PV panels on the reservoirs does not require a new transmission system – the power can be distributed using the existing transmission infrastructure of the hydroelectric dam. The placement of PV panels over hydroelectric lakes also has the potential to reduce water losses through evaporation by 70%. For instance, if Silver Lake in Los Angeles was shaded with PV panels, this would be able to save 320 million liters of water annually. Floating PV fields have already been deployed on a large scale in France, Italy, the Netherlands and California [17].
The water from reservoirs has a dual function, in cleaning and cooling the PV panels, and also serves as a perfect setting for the panels because the surfaces are perfectly flat, do not have any shade and have no alternative use issues. The added benefit is that installing PV panels on the reservoirs does not require a new transmission system – the power can be distributed using the existing transmission infrastructure of the hydroelectric dam. The placement of PV panels over hydroelectric lakes also has the potential to reduce water losses through evaporation by 70%. For instance, if Silver Lake in Los Angeles was shaded with PV panels, this would be able to save 320 million liters of water annually. Floating PV fields have already been deployed on a large scale in France, Italy, the Netherlands and California [17].