Dutch government releases floating solar energy roadmap

The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Bas van ‘t Wout, has published a roadmap for floating solar energy, outlining the opportunities and risks associated with this growing industry in the Netherlands.

In the letter to parliament, released on 2 February 2021, the Minister van ‘t Wout enclosed a roadmap for floating solar energy, unveiling plans to stimulate development and innovation, and remove potential barriers within the industry in order to have floating solar as viable energy option in the future.

Namely, the roadmap features separate analyses of floating solar industry for the small inland waterways, large inland waterways and the North Sea, as the potential for energy generation and the legal context differ for each location.

The roadmap does not contain any quantitative ambitions, meaning no targets have been set, but indicates how development and innovation should be facilitated.

The development of floating solar, according to van ‘t Wout, raises questions about the large-scale application of solar power technology on surface water as the space for renewable energy generation in Dutch waters is scarce. Also, it raises concerns about the potential effects floating solar power could have on ecological and landscape values of Dutch waterways.

There are several water policy and management plans regarding spatial impact being implemented at national and regional level, so possible locations for the installation of new floating solar panels should be looked at through prism of smart function combinations, according to the roadmap.

This entails combining energy generation with nature protection and development, water storage, and irrigation functions for farming for the inland waterways.

For offshore applications of solar power technology, the combinations with offshore wind farms and the existing infrastructure seems to present the best fit, the roadmap states.

Offshore floating solar in the North Sea

In 10 to 20 years, the North Sea may offer opportunities for large-scale application of solar power technology, but it is not yet clear whether it will actually be an attractive option in the long term, according to the roadmap.

The technology for offshore floating solar power is still in development, so it is unclear whether it will be possible to develop affordable systems that will last for decades. Consequently, the potential ecological effects are also not yet clear.

If there are opportunities in the North Sea, they are located in the wind farms, due to the existing grid connection, and the prohibition of bottom fishing, the roadmap states. The combination with offshore wind also provides a more uniform joint production profile, which in the long term seems to make the business case for the production of hydrogen locally more attractive, according to the roadmap.

In this situation, approximately 80% of the electricity generated with the solar panels can be transported over the existing grid infrastructure.

The greatest uncertainties that hinder the implementation of offshore solar on a large scale are the lifespan of the systems and cost of development, largely influenced by the global roll-out of the technology.

“At the moment I do not yet have a good idea of ​​whether the sun at sea will improve or deteriorate the business case for offshore wind. The business case for offshore solar also determines what role electricity generated by solar photovoltaics systems (on land or at sea) will play in approximately 10 years.

“Finally, it is complicated and therefore expensive to adapt the existing platforms with transformer stations for the connection of solar photovoltaics. This can be included in the design for new platforms to be built at relatively very limited costs,” Bas van ‘t Wout explained in the roadmap.

Within the wind farms, however, limitations must also be taken into account, such as the need for operators of the wind farms to safely navigate between the turbines. One of the conditions is that the safety risks associated with adding offshore solar power to a wind farm should be the same as those for other shared uses of the wind farms, such as aquafarming.

“Given these opportunities and uncertainties, the government therefore follows the following line: we facilitate the development of offshore floating solar in the innovation phase and, where possible and meaningful, remove obstacles so that we have the option of solar at sea available in the future.

“In this way, we create the opportunity to use floating solar in the North Sea (and worldwide) and not hinder its growth towards a market-ready product”, van ‘t Wout said in the roadmap.

The Dutch government initiatives in support of offshore floating solar

According to the roadmap, for pilots taking place in the North Sea from 2021-2026, the national government will ensure that ecological research into the effects of the offshore floating is also carried out.

The government is also investigating whether and how it can be made legally possible that the electricity generated in pilots can also be transported over the offshore grid without interfering with the use of the grid by the wind farms.

Throughout 2021, the government will also investigate whether it is necessary to include the offshore floating solar in the Mission-driven Research, Development and Innovation (MOOI) subsidy scheme, or whether the best impetus to the development of the industry is given through DEI + and HER + schemes that already features support for floating solar.

If the various studies turn out positively and the technological development of offshore floating solar takes off, the progress towards large-scale pilots will be possible around 2026, the roadmap states.

This could lead to the application of offshore floating solar for large-scale renewable energy generation in 10 to 20 years, according to the roadmap.

The paper containing the full roadmap is available on the government of Netherlands website in Dutch language only.