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Large solar arrays take up valuable space on land. So many nations are floating the idea of, well, floating solar panels on water bodies such as lakes and reservoirs. But the technology is generally discussed for warmer climates. The presumption is that icy conditions would impact the panels’ supporting structures.
A new study refutes that notion. Using simple materials, researchers at Western University in Canada have designed a floating solar system that worked through an icy Canadian winter and efficiently generated clean energy.
“Floating solar can be technically feasible in cold Canadian conditions, but winter operation cannot be treated as a minor detail,” says electrical engineer Koami Soulemane Hayibo, and an author on the paper published in Applied Energy.
Ice and snow, low temperatures, and the interaction between the floating structure, panels, and the water surface all affect the system’s performance and durability, Hayibo says. So he and his colleagues set out to understand exactly how, and calculate how the energy needed for ice prevention would affect overall system efficiency and operation.
Plastic rafts typically support floating solar panels in warmer climates. But the Canadian team attached flexible solar panels onto sheets of thick, waterproof foam. They then installed air lines beneath the floating panels. An onshore aquarium pump pushed a steady stream of bubbles through the pipes from the bottom of the pond. Water is slightly warmer at the bottom during winter, so the rising bubbles push the warmer temperatures up toward the panels.
 
 
The researchers tested a 7-kilowatt system comprised of 40 panels on an pond in Ilderton, Ontario. They monitored the sunlight, air temperature, wind, humidity, water temperature, solar panel temperature, energy output, and visual conditions. And they factored in the energy that the air-bubbling system used to reduce ice formation.
“The energy used for ice prevention was relatively small compared with electrical energy produced during the studied periods, but it was not negligible,” Hayibo says. The bubbling system consumed between 0.02% and 14.5% of the solar electricity, depending on the operating period and assumptions.
He adds that while the air-bubbling system could be applied to plastic rafts, the exact results should not be generalized to all water bodies without additional analysis. “Large lakes and reservoirs can have strong wave, current, moving ice, more complex anchoring requirements, and different ecological constraints,” he says. “Those parameters must be considered before applying the findings at larger scales.”
The researchers now plan to test the system over longer periods, improve the ice-prevention strategy, and evaluate how different floating structures affect performance.
Source: Koami Soulamane Hayibo, Md Motakabbir Rahman, and Joshua M. Pearce. Design and thermal-energy performance analysis of foam-based floating photovoltaic systems in a cold climate: experimental results from a 7 kW floatovoltaics in Canada. Applied Energy, 2026.
Image: d3energy
 
 
 
 
 
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