Floating Solar Fundamentals

February 13, 2024 | Online :: Central Time

0224-floating-solar

Developing solar projects on bodies of water is a proven concept in other countries, but its appearance and recent popularity in North America is causing waves.  Floating solar represents a sustainable, eco-friendly, and space-efficient means of producing clean energy.

This symposium will provide you with key insights into the design, installation, maintenance, and innovations of floating solar systems, making the complex world of floating solar accessible to all.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees will:

• Recall the fundamental concepts and terminology related to floating solar
• Explore different types of floating platforms and key design and material considerations
• Discover environmental benefits and ecological considerations
• Analyze techniques to maximize energy yield and evaluate operation and maintenance best practices
• Navigate the regulatory requirements and permitting processes
• Review requirements and issues that must be addressed during a site survey
• Compare key differences between ground-mounted solar and floating solar
• Identify safety considerations unique to floating solar systems
• Examine case studies of floating solar projects

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 : Central Time

 

9:00 – 9:15 a.m. :: Overview & Introductions

9:15 – 9:45 a.m. :: Introduction to Floating Solar

• Understanding floating solar
  • Definition
  • Advantages
  • Challenges
• Global market trends and adoption of floating solar PV systems
• Environmental benefits and ecological considerations
• Illustration on various floating solar applications

Guy Gavish, Founder & CEO, Black Beauty Ventures

Jonathan Schreiber, Development & Finance, Black Beauty Ventures

9:45 – 10:45 a.m. :: Floating Platform Design and Materials & Ground-mounted PV vs. FPV

This presentation will cover floating platform design and materials with key areas of discussion on:

• Types of floating platforms:
  • Floating structures
    • Dependent on location onshore/offshore
  • Buoyant Systems
  • Floating Islands
• Key design considerations:
  • Stability
  • Anchoring types and anchoring points
  • Weight distribution and equipment placement
    • Combiner boxes and inverters
  • Invertor location
  • Access to array OSHA ramps
  • Maximizing panel cooling
  • Panel size and number of total watts per float
  • Wind/wave loads requirements
  • Bifacial application maximization
  • Tilt angle requirements, fixed or seasonal tracking
  • Fresh or salt water
  • Made-in-America considerations
• Materials selection:
  • Durability
  • Corrosion resistance
  • Longevity
  • Supply chain considerations
  • Environmental impact recyclability

Additionally, this presentation will also dive into the differences between ground-mounted PV vs. FPV with key areas such as:

• Space utilization comparison < three acres per MW vs. 5 acres
• Site preparation cost, clearing and leveling, geotech
• Shading considerations
• Energy efficiency and natural water cooling
• Water conservation
• Environmental impact and permitting costs
• Installation costs on-site/off-site and labor
• Resilience to climate change
• Operation and maintenance

Thomas J. Lang, Director of Development, AccuSolar Corporation

10:45 – 11:00 a.m. :: Morning Break

11:00 – 11:30 a.m. :: Ongoing Research Projects and Emerging Technologies for FPV

OWC-INNOSEA will share conclusions from some of its most recent research projects and will provide an overview of key aspects of the FPV market, such as supply chain and cost comparisons with ground mounted PV. More specifically, this presentation will include:

• Long-term O&M friendly design drivers and recommendations from TRUST PV project
• Supply chain evolution since 2015
• Innovation on floaters
• Perspectives for cost comparisons between FPV and ground mounted PV

Umberto Varbaro, Offshore & Renewable Energy Engineer, OWC-INNOSEA

11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. :: Installation and Maintenance of Floating Solar Systems

With over a decade of experience installing, maintaining, and repairing floating photovoltaics of almost every type and manufacturer, Black Beauty Ventures (BBV) has installed over 24 MW of its patented flagship floating PV product in both fish farms and irrigation reservoirs. Using that expertise, this presentation will cover all aspects starting from initial site surveys to long-term maintenance and monitoring. Among the issues to be covered are:

• Site survey: requirements and issues that must be addressed including anchoring requirements, change of water depth and climatic data (insolation, wildlife, wind, snowfall etc.)
• Design, engineering and permitting support
• Logistics, mobilization, and site preparation requirements
• Installation and training
• Electrical wiring, electrical components and interconnection
• Maintenance and monitoring (cleaning, automatic cleaning systems, monitoring, and periodic site inspections)

Guy Gavish, Founder & CEO, Black Beauty Ventures

Jonathan Schreiber, Development & Finance, Black Beauty Ventures

12:45 – 1:30 p.m. :: Lunch Break

1:30 – 2:15 p.m. :: Case Study: Navigating Success with Floating Solar Innovation on the Hines Energy Complex Cooling Pond

Duke Energy’s first floating solar project in Florida is now producing clean, renewable energy while helping the company better understand the capabilities of innovative clean energy technologies to benefit Florida customers and communities, now and in the future.

The almost 1 MW floating solar array features more than 1,800 solar panels that float on top of 2 acres of water surface on an existing cooling pond at the Duke Energy Hines Energy Complex in Bartow, Florida. The bifacial solar panels absorb light from both sides, which can produce 10-20% more than their single-sided counterparts.

This presentation will focus on the project management aspects of a floating solar project: schedule, timing, material procurement obstacles, and other lessons learned.

Shayna Fraleigh, Project Manager – Distributed Energy Group, Duke Energy

2:15 – 3:15 p.m. :: Case Study: Electrical Components and System Integration

Floating photovoltaics presents unique challenges regarding safety and production. The combination of electricity and water makes safety a priority during both installation and operations. Floating photovoltaics is also more susceptible to the phenomena of mismatched panels potentially reducing the capacity of a series of panels due to soiling or simply the panels being at different angles due to wind or waves. At the 4.5 MW installation at Mitzpe Ramon, installed by Black Beauty Ventures (BBV), this phenomenon was exacerbated by the positioning of floats on the sides of the reservoir. These floats could have a different angle than the rest of the series as they rose and fell with reservoir levels. This presentation will review how BBV overcame the safety issues and mismatch panel issues using the SolarEdge environment of inverters and optimizers which includes rapid shutdown, cybersecurity, and individual panel monitoring.

Guy Gavish, Founder & CEO, Black Beauty Ventures

Jonathan Schreiber, Development & Finance, Black Beauty Ventures

Frank McIntyre, Senior Field Application Engineer, SolarEdge Technologies

3:15 – 3:30 p.m. :: Afternoon Break

3:30 – 4:00 p.m. :: Case Study: Lessons Learned from 3 Flagship Projects Worldwide

Drawing from its participation in FPV projects worldwide, including Europe, Asia and Africa, OWC-INNOSEA will present 3 case studies to highlight the key aspects and challenges to be considered for FPV installations in different sites (dam lake, salty water, quarry lake with FPV extension, etc.). Different strategies need to be considered, for each type of application, regarding technology selection, layout and mooring design, installation, maintenance and more.

Felix Gorintin, Head of Floating Solar, OWC-INNOSEA

4:00 – 4:45 p.m. :: Case Study: Incorporating Floating Solar Systems at Water Treatment Facilities: FPV at Orange County Utilities SRWSF

Orange County Utilities (OCU), based in Orlando, Florida, has taken a unique approach to achieving the County’s goal of 100% County operations electricity load from renewable sources by 2035 – Floating Solar. With limited land and rooftop space available at its facilities, OCU turned to this new and innovative way to deploy renewable energy. Many of OCU’s water treatment facilities have large bodies of water on-site that are perfect candidates for floating solar. OCU bid and was awarded a solar plan at the Southern Regional Water Supply Facility (SRWSF). These systems are part of the utility’s overall goals of utilizing solar energy and reducing energy costs to maximize the operating budget. D3Energy was awarded the bid by OCU and has completed the engineering design, permitting, and construction of the 1.2 MWDC floating solar system in Orlando. This presentation will focus solely on the floating solar system at OCU’s SRWSF and discuss the benefits of using floating solar at this site, the specifics of the project, challenges faced, and successes achieved.

Stetson Tchividjian, Director of Business Development, D3Energy

Shayna Fraleigh, Project Manager – Distributed Energy Group, Duke Energy

Guy Gavish, Founder & CEO, Black Beauty Ventures

Felix Gorintin, Head of Floating Solar, OWC-INNOSEA

Thomas J. Lang, Director of Development, AccuSolar Corporation

Frank McIntyre, Senior Field Application Engineer, SolarEdge Technologies

Jonathan Schreiber, Development & Finance, Black Beauty Ventures

Stetson Tchividjian, Director of Business Development, D3Energy

Umberto Varbaro, Offshore & Renewable Energy Engineer, OWC-INNOSEA

We will be using Microsoft Teams to facilitate your participation in the upcoming event. You do not need to have an existing Teams account in order to participate in the broadcast – the course will play in your browser and you will have the option of using a microphone to speak with the room and ask questions, or type any questions in via the chat window and our on-site representative will relay your question to the instructor.

• Microsoft recommends downloading and installing the Teams app if possible. You may also use the Edge browser or Chrome.
• You will receive a separate email with a unique link to a personalized landing page which will include links to join all sessions of this event.
• If you are using a microphone, please ensure that it is muted until such time as you need to ask a question.
• The remote meeting connection will be open approximately 30 minutes before the start of the course. We encourage you to connect as early as possible in case you experience any unforeseen problems.

Please Note: This event is being conducted entirely online. All attendees will connect and attend from their computer, one connection per purchase. For details please see our FAQ

If you are unable to attend at the scheduled date and time, we make recordings available to all attendees for 7 days after the event

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS EVENT:

Floating Solar Fundamentals

February 13, 2024 | Online

Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the event. Cancellations must be received on or before January 12, 2024 in order to be refunded and will be subject to a US $195.00 processing fee per registrant. No refunds will be made after this date. Cancellations received after this date will create a credit of the tuition (less processing fee) good toward any other EUCI event. This credit will be good for six months from the cancellation date. In the event of non-attendance, all registration fees will be forfeited. In case of conference cancellation, EUCIs liability is limited to refund of the event registration fee only. For more information regarding administrative policies, such as complaints and refunds, please contact our offices at 303-770-8800

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 0.7 CEUs for this event

Requirements for Successful Completion of Program

Participants must log in each day and be in attendance for the entirety of the workshop to be eligible for continuing education credit.

Instructional Methods

Case studies, PowerPoint presentations, and panel discussions will be used in this program.

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Upon successful completion of this event, program participants interested in receiving CPE credits will receive a certificate of completion.

Course CPE Credits: 7.5
There is no prerequisite for this Course.
Program field of study: Specialized Knowledge
Program Level: Basic
Delivery Method: Group Internet Based
Advanced Preparation: None

EUCI is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its web site: www.nasbaregistry.org

 

Who Should Attend

• Solar project developers
• Solar investors and sponsors
• Solar project environmental advisory firms
• Floating solar service providers
• Solar consultants and analysts
• Water resource managers
• Reservoir managers
• Wastewater treatment plant operators and engineers
• Utilities
  • Investor-Owned Utilities
  • Municipal Utilities
• Utility operations managers
• Climate change and sustainability planners
• State and federal environmental staff
• Environmental organizations and advocates
• Researchers and academics
• Community stakeholders