Abstract:
Floating Solar Photovoltaic (FSPV) systems, also known as floatovoltaics, are a rapidly increasing emerging technology sector in which solar Photovoltaic systems are installed directly on water bodies. The FSPV system has many advantages over its ground equivalent, including improved panel efficiency, the elimination of land-related expenditures, the preservation of land for other uses, as well as environmental advantages such as reservoir water conservation and algae boom containment. This study's goal was to determine whether it would be feasible to establish a floating PV system at the Ntaruka hydropower reservoir in order to decrease water evaporation, increase PV cell efficiency, and free up land for other uses. This project's objectives are to understand how to build an FSPV system, to identify the meteorological factors that affect it, to compare the effectiveness and performance of FSPV and currently installed land-based PV systems, and to investigate the feasibility study of FPVS in Rwanda. It is a fresh idea to research the viability of such power generation for Rwanda based on earlier studies indicating a wide range of benefits of using FPVS and the fact that land scarcity has slowed the progress of many countries, including Rwanda. Any nation using this technology will require further investigation and involvement. The only areas covered in this Dissertation were technical planning and environmental analysis due to a lack of useful resources, including software. Economic and FSPV installation analyses were not covered by this. This research addressed load demand projections for the site, which are predicted to be 252.56kWh/day with a maximum demand of 79.88 kW based on the electrical appliance usage. The floating PV system was designed to be able to meet the daily energy needs of the site's communal electric appliances. The Temperature and Wind Speed are the major contributory factor to PV cell efficiency drops and low power output on the land.
