BOOST floating solar design up for basin try-outs

The BOOST project consortium has developed a purpose-built design for offshore floating solar demonstrator that will be tested at Sintef Ocean’s basin laboratory in the following months.

The BOOST project kicked off in January 2021 with the development of a purpose-built design for floating solar unit that can withstand the extreme conditions with up to 10-metre waves at the location, according to project partners.

Short for ‘Bringing Offshore Ocean Sun to the Global Market’, the BOOST project involves the collaboration of Ocean Sun, Innosea, the Technological Institute of the Canary Islands (ITC), and the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), coordinated by Fred. Olsen Renewables.

The aim of the €4 million project, funded by EU’s Horizon 2020 program, is to tackle the challenges of deploying floating solar technology offshore, in non-sheltered sea conditions.

During the project, the partners will build a full-scale 0,25MWp floating solar power unit that will be deployed for trials in the sunniest part of Europe, off the coast of Gran Canaria.

According to Ocean Sun, the completed design for the demonstrator features a double ring system and a larger freeboard.

The construction of the demonstrator is expected in early 2022, but beforehand, the design will be tested in the basin laboratory of Sintef Ocean.

The design will then be verified by both Innosea and DNV as an independent certification body, according to Ocean Sun.

The basin trials along with the validation and certification by Innosea and DNV are important activities to increase the bankability of Ocean Sun’s solution for non-sheltered deployments near-shore, offshore and on larger lakes, the company said.

Being able to deploy the technology in non-sheltered locations enables powering islands and coastal communities with highly competitive renewable energy.

It also enables Power-to-X opportunities such as the production of hydrogen and fresh water through desalination, Ocean Sun said.

Ocean Sun has already ventured into combining floating solar technology with desalination, as it started collaborating with the Norwegian company Marine Water Production (MWP), to power the latter’s floating desalination vessels with solar energy.

The plant is expected to produce between 50 to 100 million liters fresh water per day. Projects in the Middle East may be the first for the application of the technology within the following 24 months, according to Ocean Sun.