The floating solar industry passed the waypoint of 3 gigawatts (GW) installed capacity in 2021 and has an expected portfolio surpassing 10 GW by 2025. With a theoretical potential only on inland man-made water as high as 4 terawatts (TW), the industry is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

To ensure that the industry maintains trust from investors and regulators it is crucial to develop the knowledge about the systems and applied technology to make sure that these complex systems are designed, manufactured, installed, and operated in a safe and cost-efficient manner. By compiling this new knowledge into design standards, it will be possible for the industry to apply it directly in their projects.

Currently, the industry is relying on in-house knowledge, but with such a rapid growth it will be beneficiary for all partners to join their efforts so that the cost level can be reduced while at the same time develop state-of-the-art technologies and design philosophies. The internationally recognized registrar and classification society DNV-GL started on the road to standardization by publishing the world’s first design guideline of floating PV systems in 2021, in which Seaflex participated as mooring experts. The document is already widely adopted in the industry. The next step is to develop design standards including safety factors and design methodologies that are optimized to a wide range of floating PV systems. This work will be carried out through two dedicated JIPs, respectively deepening the most relevant requirements for the design and analyses of the anchoring and mooring systems and design and testing of floaters for the use in floating solar photovoltaics.

Seaflex has once again been invited to join both programs to provide insight into questions regarding optimization of mooring and anchoring, as well as how to design floaters to harmonize with said mooring technology.

The 16 participants in the JIP for Design and Testing of Floats for FPV:
Accusolar, BayWa r.e., Equinor, Floating Solar, Iberdrola, Isigenere, Mibet Energy, Ocean Sun, Oceans of Energy, Scotra, Seaflex, Sungrow, Third Pillar Solar, Upsolar, Xfloat, Zimmerman.

The 24 participants in the JIP for Anchoring and Mooring Design for FPV:
Accusolar, ACEN CORPORATION, BayWa r.e., BlueC, Equinor, Floating Solar, Fred Olsen 1848, Iberdrola, Inventocean, Mibet Energy, Moss Maritime, Noria Energy, Ocean Sun, Oceans of Energy, RCAM Technologies, SBM Offshore, Scotra, Seaflex, SolarDuck, Sungrow, Third Pillar Solar, Urbasolar, Ventolines, Xfloat.