Cleaning and Maintenance

Maintaining the solar panels in a floating solar park might not be as easy as keeping a home solar panel working, but some of the same techniques can be used to ensure increased efficiency throughout the year.

Cleaning your solar panels is a must. Cleaning the panels even once a year can increase the efficiency of your panels by 3.5% (Done in Google study, Best Way to Clean Solar Panels). And rain doesn’t cut it. There is a 12% difference in efficiency output came from comparing

professionally cleaning the panels to just relying on rain to wash them. This test was done in California, a place with a very different climate than Vaasa, but still a good comparison proving that cleaning is a good thing to do (Best Way to Clean…). This annual cleaning can come in conjunction with the snow and ice removal that may be needed in March when the ice starts to thaw.

Cleaning the solar panels consists of taking a soft brush or sponge and washing off and grime, dirt, or debris from the panels face. Biodegradable soap can also be used for harsher stains on the panel’s surface (Cleaning and Maintenance…). Taking care to be gentle on the panel and clean it carefully is a must if peak efficiency is to be guaranteed.

Maintenance will also need to be done to keep these panels in working order. Checking all electrical components at the time of the annual cleaning would be a good way to save money and reduce the amount of workdays required to check the panels. Maintenance will also need to be done if something goes wrong, which is not something that can be planned for, but is

something one needs to be aware of and ready for.

Finally, keeping data on how the panels are working will greatly improve the efficiency of the park in the future as well as other solar panel parks in the future. Collecting data on energy output, temperature of panels, efficiency of electrical connections, and differences in production based on areas in the park will be very important when keeping the park up to date and at its highest production level. This data collection could be done manually, but a system that tracks this data could also be included in the design package to assist with automatic data collection.

4.14 Conclusion

The above research has all been compiled into the best possible options. These options can be seen in the Design Section of this report. The above research shows the thought process and details behind how the designs were created and what was considered before pulling together some conclusions.

5. Design

All of the above research has been compiled into four simple designs. Each design has a different design option for each component listed to the left. A picture of the designs can be seen below Table 19. By combining a lot of the best options from each individuals research the team was able to suggest four options for feasible floating solar panel parks. The components can, for the most part, be interchanged with one another to eventually create the one best design option. As of right now, the options are still open for further research, discussion, and testing.

Table 19. ​Options for design

Design 1: Rotating

Design 1: Rotating

Rotation The center circle rotates around with

Anchoring This structure is being held up by a singular pole in the middle. The anchoring method for this is simply the driven pile and pole

Design 1: Rotating

The designs above can now be visualized in the following design drawings. Please note that the mirrors that were in the research section can be placed on any of these floating panel park designs and thusly have not been added to the table above. The main mirror techniques hoping to be used and tested include Fresno-lensing and the V-trough method.

Figure 44.​ Design 1: Rotating circular structures

Figure 45.​ ​Design 2: Rectangular structure

Figure 46. ​Design3:​​Square with circular rotating platform

Figure 47.​ Design 4: Triangle shaped inflatable structure

These four main designs came from pulling together all of the research done on floating solar panel parks and their main components. The components themselves are interchangeable, but some do depend on other portions. Like the anchoring method depends greatly on the floating structure and so on. From here, the components will be analyzed through more research,

energy and cost analyses, and possible testing to see which of the options for each components is the best. From this analysis, a final best option will be designed and proposed to ​Wärtsilä.

6. Results

The ​Floating Ideas Team ​is currently in the process of revising and finalizing the prototype design for the Floating Solar Panel Park project. Going forward, the team plans to test the prototype design in different locations in Vaasa, Finland to estimate the yearly power output and efficiency of the solar panel prototype. The data will then be simulated and analyzed to a

full-scale floating solar park to determine the feasibility of floating solar park technology in Finland.

In addition to the final design and testing of the product, an economic analysis will be started.

This analysis will include cost of manufacturing the solar panel park as well as energy costs and

savings had from implementing such a project. And finally, an environmental impact

assessment will be completed to estimate the possible impacts this kind of project will have on the environment.

7. Conclusion

The ​Floating Ideas Team​ has throughout the beginning of this EPS semester accomplished much in terms of setting up the team, researching, and combining researched components into a few simple designs.

The​ Floating Ideas Team​ started with the basics by forming their team and set up a system for managing the project throughout the semester. To start, team roles were researched to help better develop the team. The team had multiple repeats of personality meaning that sometimes the team members might have to shift out of their comfort zone to fill another needed team role.

After determining team characteristics, a team contract and other team agreements such as the mission, vision, and objectives of this project were made. The main mission for this project being to create an economically, socially, and environmentally feasible floating solar energy source for Northern Europe first concentrated in Vaasa, Finland and then extended to other locations with similar latitudes. This mission is what started the team on the track to detailing their work breakdown structure and consequently their schedule and RACI Matrix. In all three of these documents, the work was broken into three main sections, with one extra managerial section to help with deadlines. The main three sections are research, design, and testing. With these three sections of the project being the most important, the team decided that by the time the midterm report was to be handed in, all of the research had to be done and a design had to be close to being decided upon.

The research that the team did included many aspects of typical floating solar panel park.

Weather was considered first. With Vaasa, Finland being cold and snowy for a portion of the year, and with the amount of shortwave solar radiation making it to the ground being very low during that same time of year, it was concluded that the panel park should not be set up to require extra additions or maintenance to ensure they are clear and working in the winter. The panels will need to be working efficiently from March until October to collect as much solar radiation as possible, but from October until March it doesn’t matter much to make sure they are clear of snow. The type of panel being used in this solar park will be monocrystalline panels due to the fact that they are a mix of better efficiency with a small increase in price. Most often with the other panel types the cost overrides the added efficiency or they don’t have very good efficiency, leading the team to decide on the monocrystalline monofacial panel. After deciding on a type of panel, it was easier to research and simulate the best placement of these panels.

Due to a shadowing effect, it was simulated that placing the panels approximately 2.07, 4.37, and 7.54 meters apart would ensure that the panels would get more sun. Additionally, placing the panels sideways was also simulated and determined to be the best mode for placing the panels in the park.

Beyond just the panels there are a lot of other components that go into making a solar park work and be efficient to offset its original costs. To do this, efficiency influencers were

researched. The first “influencer” being solar tracking. Solar tracking is a must in Finland. With the sun being in the sky for different periods of the day and at vastly different heights in the sky depending on season, solar tracking would help to ensure that the panels in the park would be facing the sun as much as possible. Another device that could greatly help increase the

efficiency of the panel park would be mirrors and other solar concentrators. These devices help direct the sun more squarely at the panels or increase the amount of sun being shone at them.

The best options for mirrors/concentrators are Fresnel Lenses and V-Troughs. Both of these devices are proven to work in many cases, thus making it difficult to choose one for a specific design. If mirrors/concentrators are used, there is the fear that with the added solar insolation, the panels will heat up too much and become less efficient. Because of this, multiple cooling systems were researched and fit to a design. The main cooling systems researched were the water veil, water sprinkler, forced water circulation, forced air circulation, and the use of a transparent coating. Each cooling system has its own advantage, but with the lake being right underneath the park, the water options seem to slightly have an advantage. More research will need to be done to choose the best option.

The structure is the last portion of the design. Many materials and designs were researched to make the actual floating structure of this design. The materials for this project were specially considered. With this structure being in the water and being subjected to freeze/thaw cycles, the material has to be tough and resistant to corrosion. The best products found to combat some of these special needs were the polysurf pontoons by Swimsol and the PE-HD floating pontoons.

These products are able to withstand water, since they are used for swimming docks and other floating platforms frequently. They are also flexible and would be able to freeze within the ice without breaking. In addition to the floating structure, there needs to be an anchoring system as well as a rotation system. These two go hand-in-hand and are dependent upon one another.

This means that with the two types of rotation, above water and below water, the anchoring systems would most likely be different. For above water rotation such as gear-like movements above the water, a stationary anchoring system would be wanted. This could include a driven pile and pole, an anchor with a secondary tie-up location, or anchors set at two locations and strung away from each other. For below water rotation, such as motor options, a very different set up is needed. For below water rotation, the whole structure rotates, requiring the anchors to allow some rotation. This kind of anchoring system could look like four anchor chains coming to meet as one anchor or having two set anchor with are strung each other. For visualization, the pictures in the research section of this report should be referenced.

In the end, the team took all of the information that they researched and compiled it into four unique designs. The designs themselves can be referenced in the design section of this report.

From here, the team plans to do an energy balance analysis to determine which components of each design would perform best in Vaasa, Finland. With this study done, the team can further compile the best components into a final design which will then be tested and then simulated to

see how a large, 1 MW solar park would behave. Beyond these tests, the team also plans to do an economic and environmental analysis for this floating solar park. After that, the team should be able to propose a final product design to ​Wärtsilä​ for possible manufacturing and

implementation.

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