Evaluating the benefits of Integrating Floating Photovoltaic and Pumped Storage Power System

•A novel Integrated Floating Photovoltaic and Pumped Storage Power System is proposed.•A coordinated operation model is developed to determine the power scheduling.•Genetic algorithm is used to optimize the coordination of the integrated system.•Advantage of the integrated system is proved by comparing with standalone systems.•Associated benefits on conservation of water and land resource are assessed. Floating Photovoltaic systems have developed very fast in recent years. Compared to individual Floating Photovoltaic systems, further advantages, such as grid connectivity and energy storage, can be obtained when Floating Photovoltaic operates collaboratively with Pumped Storage Power Systems. This paper proposed an Integrated Floating Photovoltaic-Pumped Storage Power System and quantitatively assessed the potential of the integrated system in electricity generation and conservation of water and land resource. The study developed a coordinated operation model for the Integrated Floating Photovoltaic-Pumped Storage Power System, which employed a dual-objective optimization, namely to maximize the benefits of electricity generation and to minimize the energy imbalance at the same time. The dual-objective optimization was solved using the genetic algorithm method. Other benefits of the Integrated Floating Photovoltaic-Pumped Storage Power System, namely conservation of water and land resource, were also assessed. The proposed methodology was applied to a 2 GW Floating Photovoltaic farm and a 1 GW Pumped Storage Power System. Results indicated that the Integrated Floating Photovoltaic-Pumped Storage Power System has a great potential for gaining the benefits of electricity generation (9112.74 MWh in a typical sunny day averagely) and reducing energy imbalance (23.06 MW aggregately in one day). The coordinated operation provides the possibility to achieve a higher generation benefits without affecting the reliability of the grid, while the optimization method plays a key role of efficient coordination. In addition, the system would help to save 20.16 km2 land and 19.06 million m3 water a year due to the reduction in evaporation loss. The synthetic benefits greatly improve the economic and environmental feasibility of photovoltaic systems in reality.