Adoption of floating solar photovoltaics on waste water management system: a unique nexus of water-energy utilization, low-cost clean energy generation and water conservation

Scarcity of land coupled with rising land price is detrimental in developing large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants. A practical alternative is to develop floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) systems, where the PV modules are floated on water. Technical assessment and feasibility study of FSPV systems are not well addressed. This paper presents the adoption of FSPV system on waste water treatment systems as large water surfaces are available. An experiment was performed to determine the performance of FSPV system in outdoor conditions, and it revealed that the FSPV module performed with 9.84% higher efficiency than land-based PV (LBPV) module. A feasibility study and techno-economic analysis of 15 MW FSPV system are presented and compared with a similar LBPV system. Results show that the FSPV plant will supply 26,465.7 MWh of energy annually to the grid and operate with performance ratio (PR) of 86.7%. The FSPV system will also save 7,884,000 m 3 of water by reducing evaporation and the reduction in CO 2 emission will be 518,943.4 tCO 2 . Financial analysis of the FSPV system reveals that the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is 0.047 $/kWh which is 7.84% lower than LBPV system. Comparison of the FSPV system and a similar LBPV system reveals that the social and economic performance of the FSPV system is better than the LBPV system. The results will help the policymakers in making conversant decisions toward developing FSPV projects and also help wastewater plants to shift toward sustainable practices. Graphic abstract