Floating into the unknown: How Oceans of Energy fared in its first big test

March 24, 2022 | Case Study

Floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems have grown tremendously in the recent past despite the several barriers they must deal with, as their value proposition is sensible in regions with land scarcity. The global installed capacity for FPV systems grew almost five-fold from 566 MWp in 2017 to 2.6 GWp in 2020, with Asia (in particular, China) dominating the FPV space. Most of these installations are in inland water bodies such as small lakes and reservoirs, as seen in Indonesia's first utility-scale FPV project. FPV developers shy away from offshore deployments, as they face multiple technical and cost challenges; for instance, such systems must be durable to withstand harsh weather conditions. However, Oceans of Energy, a Dutch startup, has been developing offshore FPV systems since 2016 and claims that its design can tolerate extreme weather; it launched the world's first offshore FPV system off the Dutch coast in 2019 to demonstrate its capabilities. This project faced its first big test during the recent storms of Corrie and Eunice that hit the Netherlands.