Colombia. In the El Peñol reservoir, in the east of the department of Antioquia, Empresas Públicas de Medellín installs the first floating solar park pilot in Colombia. This is the new use of solar panels on floating systems. The aim is to test and determine the technical and economic fundamentals of these solutions and their benefits compared to traditional installations on land and roofs.
The General Manager of EPM, Jorge Londoño De la Cuesta, indicated that "with this pilot project we seek to verify if floating solar panel systems have an energy performance of more than 10% or 15% compared to traditional systems on land or roof, thanks to their proximity to water, which allows them to be cooler and take advantage of the greater radiation that reflects the water with respect to the earth."
A floating solar park is a system that integrates several subsystems including: solar panels, flotation devices, anchoring, on-site clamping, inverters, bidirectional measurement, and real-time communications devices.
The pilot solar park that was installed in the El Peñol reservoir has 368 panels, in which the EPM logo is inscribed. It is located near the catchment tower, so as not to alter the tourist dynamics of the dam. The total area of the project is 1,430 square meters, each panel measuring 99 by 60 centimeters. With this system, which has an installed capacity of 100 kilowatts (kW), in two 50 kW modules, it is expected to generate approximately 145 MWh (megawatt-hours/year) of energy, enough to provide power to 15 large houses all year round.
The floating solar panels will be compared with traditional solar panels installed on the roof, in the camp of the Guatapé Power Plant, under the same conditions of solar radiation.
The energy of the 368 panels, located on floats, receive the sun directly and the radiation that is reflected from the water. This solar energy is transformed into electricity and transmitted by a special underwater cable to a substation located in the surveillance house of that area of the dam.
The energy from the floating solar panels is used in equipment of the plant and operation of the reservoir. With this project, a bidirectional meter was installed that allows to visualize how much energy the system produces, how it is used and large amounts of data (big data) are collected in real time with analysis and intelligence tools.
This comprehensive solution will allow better use of water resources and mitigate climate impact risks in the company's operations. If the expected results are achieved, EPM would be the first Colombian company to take advantage of a reservoir to generate solar energy through photovoltaic solar panels, as a complement to the hydraulic energy obtained thanks to the reservoir.
Detailed data capture will be done for one year. Based on the results obtained, the feasibility of future solar energy generation projects with floating panels will be defined.
EPM has been teaming up with the company ERCO, in which the Private Equity Fund EPM Innovación has a 40.9% stake. In addition, capabilities of other international players have been integrated to develop this type of solutions in a comprehensive and sustainable way.
Source: EPM.
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