Thermal loss factor for floating PV plant

[hoank]

I'm engineering a floating PV power plant. They said that putting the PV panels on the water surface can reduce operating temperature and increase efficiency as well as production, but I can't find any specific number or model to calculate these number reliably.

In PVsyst, there are 3 default cases for thermal loss factor. So what is the most favorable case for floating PV plant or how can I modify these parameter to best fit with my case, anyone can help?

Tks a lot :D

[André Mermoud]

The ambient temperature may indeed be lower on the water surface. However I don't know any study evaluating this effect.

Now for the albedo, if you have rows (sheds) arrangement only the first row will "see" the albedo. For all other rows, the water surface is not visible.

Therefore there is a shading factor of (n -1)/n on the albedo factor (n = number of sheds, illimited sheds hypothesis).

By the way, however surprising it can appear, the albedo contribution of a lake (during the full year) has been measured as very low (much lower than the 0.2 usual coefficient).