Startup develops floating solar farm

While solar energy companies throughout the world are competing for the relatively few vast land areas required to house solar farms, Israeli startup Solaris Synergy has found a new terrain to use. Instead of a land-based solar system, the company decided to develop a water-based technology. In other words: a floating solar power plant. The company's founders say they realized that the large lands required for thousands of solar panels are nearly impossible to find, especially in a small country like Israel. Solaris Synergy's Business Development Manager, Dr. Elyakim Kassel, tells NoCamels: "In many countries there is a competition between land for construction and land for large solar farms. Our system comes as a solution to use water surfaces instead of using valuable land." According to Solaris Synergy, any fresh, salt or waste water surface can be turned into a solar energy platform. Solaris Synergy's flagship product is a floating concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system — a system that concentrates a large amount of sunlight onto a small area to generate electricity by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity. The system features a modular design that supports power output ranging from several kilowatts to dozens of megawatts, depending on size. According to the company, their solar-on-water solution dramatically lowers the cost of renewable energy production since the water surface is also used for cooling the solar panels. This cooling system keeps the silicon elements used as semiconductors at a low temperature and therfore increases their power generation efficiency and extends their lifespan.