WITH THE PRICE of solar power cratering by 85 percent during the 2010s, the question is no longer whether it’s economically feasible to deploy the technology on a large scale. Now it’s: Where can’t we put solar panels? Governments are handing out tax breaks to get people to install them at home, but we can also put them in the empty space around airports and over ugly parking lots, or slap them on rooftop gardens and in agricultural fields and grow crops under them, simultaneously generating power and food. So how about laying a bunch of solar panels on reservoirs? Floating photovoltaic systems, also known as floatovoltaics, could be a powerful complement to the hydroelectric power already generated by a reservoir and save water by shading it and reducing evaporation.
A new study by an international team of researchers shows just how useful wide-scale floatovoltaics could be...more
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