Deploying floating solar panels on ponds can increase the amount of methane released from the water, new research finds.
The study doesn’t suggest that floating solar panels are counterproductive as a climate solution: The greenhouse gas release per kilowatt of energy produced is still likely less than that released from the burning of fossil fuels, and likely similar to deploying solar panels on land. More work will be needed to compare the greenhouse gas impact of producing floating panels vs. land-based ones. But the findings do hint that simple engineering fixes, such as deploying bubblers to maintain levels of dissolved oxygen in the ponds, could make floating solar more environmentally friendly.
“The key to how sustainable this technology will be is to look at costs, benefits, and tradeoffs,” says Nicholas Ray, a biogeochemist at the Univ. of Delaware who led the research.
Floating photovoltaic arrays are appealing because they save land that could otherwise be conserved as a wild ecosystem or used for agriculture. Deploying solar panels on water can also boost efficiency because water circulating beneath the panels has a cooling effect. In drought-prone areas, solar panels can also help reduce evaporation, saving water for uses such as irrigation.
But 90% of floating solar panels deployed so far cover...
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