The Aswan Excessive Dam Reservoir is one in every of the world’s largest water reservoir and suffers from high water evaporation rates ensuing from the negate’s in particular warm and dry local weather. Floating PV installations might maybe be a solve, while also offering a legit match for hydropower generation.
An international learn team analyzed the outcomes of inserting in floating photovoltaics (FPV) on Egypt’s Aswan Excessive Dam Reservoir (AHDR). The enlighten of numerical prognosis, they’ve accounted for the likely strength generation of the FPV plant, as well to the evaporation nick rate supplied.
“This search investigates the advantages of an FPV machine over 12 years, from 2005 to 2016, on the AHDR,” they acknowledged. “We also investigate totally different eventualities for complementing Aswan Excessive Dam’s (AHD’s) hydropower with FPV and the usage of additional water for reservoir administration or irrigation.”
The AHD used to be constructed in the 1960s, supplying annual hydropower generation of 10,000 GWh. Successfully, the dam also created the AHDR, one in every of the largest manmade reservoirs on the earth. The total reservoir stretches for approximately 500 km alongside the Nile River; 330 km of it is in Egypt, the build it is understood as Lake Nasser, and 170 km is in Sudan, the build it is named Lake Nubia. Its total ground home is 6,000 km2 and it has a storage capability of 169 billion cubic meters (BCM). Then all another time, evaporation rates are high ensuing from the negate’s in particular warm and dry local weather.
For their investigation, the scientists assumed to assemble an FPV plant on the reservoir with panel coverage of 0%, 10%, forty five%, and 90% of the lake. “Per the World Vitality Company (2020), the annual electrical energy consumption of the African continent is 715.6 TWh. To mask this by FPV on the AHDR, a forty five% FPV occupancy might maybe be ample. The investment charges (CAPEX) of one of these challenge would quantity to roughly $ 14.6 billion,” they highlighted.
To mannequin the installations, the teachers venerable the hydrodynamic Popular Lake Mannequin, a vertical 1D mannequin that represents the hydrodynamic processes of standing water bodies. They assumed tilt angles of either 12 levels or 30 levels, the usage of LONGi LR4 modules, with a row distance of 1.44 m. Within the case of 90% FPV coverage, the installed capability calculated used to be 735 GW.
“To estimate the contribution of an FPV machine on the AHDR to Egypt’s energy present, we calculated the electrical yield the usage of the simulation plot Zenit,” explained the group. “The simulations had been evaluated by manner of the strength plant’s electrical yield and the performance ratio.”
The effects of the simulation confirmed that, in the case of 0% panel coverage, that being the downside this day, the cumulative annual water loss to evaporation ranged from 10.65 to 13.17 BCM. The entire evaporation loss over 2005–2016 used to be 141.6 BCM, while the suggest yearly loss used to be 11.8 BCM, and the suggest evaporation price per day used to be 6.5 mm.
Popular command material
If 10% of the lake had been lined by FPV, a total of seven.2 BCM would had been saved over the 12 years, while if forty five% had been lined, 33.7 BCM would had been saved. “The maximum cumulative water savings for a 90% FPV occupancy over the 12-twelve months search length reached 70.4 BCM, amounting to annual water savings of 5.9 BCM and a nick rate of evaporation loss by 49.7%,” added the learn group.
Furthermore, the teachers discovered that, at 90% coverage and a tilt perspective of 30 levels, the maximum annual yield of the FPV machine might maybe be 1,431 TWh, with a performance ratio of 78.7%. That might maybe upward push a chunk to 1,459 TWh and a performance ratio of 80.8% in the case of a 12-level tilt perspective.
Following these calculations, the group analyzed three eventualities for the usage of the water saved from evaporation. Within the most valuable scenario, it might maybe maybe be venerable to generate additional hydropower on the present plant; in the 2d, it used to be assumed to abet in the filling of the Toshka Lakes; and in the final scenario, the additional water used to be venerable by the Mubarak Pumping Set aside for irrigation of the fields in the Recent Valley, an condominium that stretches between the Toshka Lakes and the AHDR.
“A relentless water withdrawal for irrigation in the midst of FPV coverage used to be even handed most favorable. Looking out on FPV occupancy, between 7.35 and eight.07 BCM of irrigation water might maybe be supplied each year, with a maximum of 16 BCM spilled into the Toshka Lakes,” concluded the researchers.
The prognosis used to be supplied in the search “Evaporation nick rate and energy generation skill the usage of floating photovoltaic strength vegetation on the Aswan Excessive Dam Reservoir,” which used to be printed in the Hydrological Sciences Journal. The learn group used to be formed by scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Vitality Techniques (ISE) and the University of Freiburg, as neatly because the USA’ University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This command material is proper by copyright and might maybe additionally now now not be reused. If you happen to’d prefer to cooperate with us and would favor to reuse some of our command material, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.