| Work Detail |
The CEO of Apollo Flutuantes, which developed the floating system, said there is already an 8 GW portfolio of floating solar projects that will be developed on lakes and reservoirs in Brazil over the next four years. The standard system has 7 MWp, with 5 MW, and has two outputs of 2.5 MW each for distributed generation.
A consortium led by Apollo Flutuantes put into operation in Campinas a floating solar island with bifacial panels that rotates from east to west following the sun to maximize energy generation. The project partners and suppliers have formed a consortium that already has consultations to serve 8 GW of floating solar projects over the next four years. Potential clients are both hydroelectric plants that can choose to hybridize their assets and distributed generation companies that seek economies of scale.
Royal Fic, a fuel distributor from Paulínia, state of São Paulo, is a sponsor of the floating plants and owner of the islands installed in its lake, in Estancia Jatobá, and included in distributed generation.
The 690 Wp bifacial modules are supplied by AE Solar. “From the beginning, AE Solar conducted tests and discovered something that even we didnt know, that the floating Apollo has an excellent albedo, at least 17%. The characteristic of being able to produce energy from the rear, which is the albedo, caused the system to be greatly reduced, from 10,000 to 7,000 meters,” comments the general director of Apollo, José Alves Teixeira Filho.
Opportunities in distributed generation
The project also functions as a pilot and demonstration of the standard island developed and patented by Apollo, 180 meters wide by 280 meters long, with 9,000 bifacial modules. The island weighs approximately 1,200 tons floating, with another 396 tons submerged for anchoring. The capacity is 7 MWp and 5 MW in alternating current.
“It may seem simple, just a buoy, but it is not. This buoy has to last 30 years. Theres all this engineering research and development. This is a very interdisciplinary project, that is why we need partners,” says Teixeira.
The idea of ??the consortium is to offer these units both to hydroelectric plant operators who want to hybridize their assets and to companies in the distributed generation segment.
“Exclusively for floating photovoltaics, it is allowed to build large installed plants, for example, of 300 MW in a lake, electrically divided into 300 portions of up to 1 MW and negotiate this energy as distributed generation, directly with the end customer, which is prohibited for terrestrial installations. This provides economic gains to floating plants very quickly: to give you an idea, a 2 billion reais project has a payback period of less than three years. There is no such short return on investment for works of this magnitude,” said Teixeira Filho.
It refers to Law 14,300, which prohibits dividing a generating plant into smaller units to comply with the power limits for distributed microgeneration or minigeneration, except for floating plants, as long as each unit observes the maximum installed power limit.
Teixeira affirms that one of the models that hydroelectric plants are studying, in addition to the opportunity for hybridization, is to give up part of their reservoirs for exploration by other distributed generation companies, which can benefit from gains in scale and exploit the assets as distributed generation. .
The consortium
The partners in the development of the project currently in operation joined Apollo in a consortium, which, for Teixeira, demonstrates confidence and interest in the development of this segment.
“In this partnership with Apollo, which is a super technological and unsinkable float, we are applying our heterojunction products with 210 mm cells. We are talking about products that can reach up to 700 W, with a reduced temperature coefficient and a more moisture-resistant encapsulation and that can reach up to 90% bifaciality,” says the director of AE Solar in Brazil, Ramon Nuches. .
SMA supplies inverters with a high input current, which will allow even larger modules to be integrated in the future. Fortlev supplied three tons of special HDPE with UV factor 14 for the manufacture of the float.
The University of Campinas (Unicamp) is the scientific arm responsible for studies and comparative reports between installations on land and in water: there are two in the water, one fixed facing North and the second moving from East to West.
The project also has a PLC and a solar tracking and propulsion control system from Altus; On Off Grid engineering and EPC; electrical panels and air conditioners for the containment and protection of automation and propulsion of Tasco and QRZ Metais; Alfa Sense fiber optic intrusion early warning system; automated reinforced concrete preparation system for anchor bolts from the Italian company Fiori; bathymetry and GPS signal correction system from CPE Tecnología; optimizers for TIGO Israels security and telemetry solution.
Transmaq supplied the anchor winches and the floating maintenance and fire suppression system (FMCI). Power Safe (AC Delco Jonssons Controls) supplied the entire battery system for the FMCI and follower island. INOX-PAR supplied all the stainless steel fasteners applied to the islands and FMCI.
These companies should have participation in future projects that the consortium led by Apollo will close, says Teixeira. |
