“Floatovoltaics” Provide Clean Energy and Keep Water in Reservoirs

By Shanna Edberg
December 22, 2016

Solar panels that float on water, known as “floatovoltaics,” are being installed in England, Japan, Brazil, the American Southwest, and in many other countries. In major desert reservoirs such as Lake Mead, hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water are lost each year to evaporation – but floatovoltaics can reduce water evaporation in dry climates by as much as 90 percent, thus preserving the water for people’s use. Floatovoltaics are also more productive than terrestrial solar panels since they operate at cooler temperatures, and they reduce the need for land on which to build solar panels.

Climate Protection: Reduces greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels Energy & Mobility: Provides clean energy supply Food & Water: Preserves water in reservoirs

This post is part of a series on examples of multisolving, or climate-smart policies that simultaneously work to mitigate climate change while providing co-benefits such as the ones described above. The multiple benefits analysis was done using the FLOWER framework.