Spain sets forth regulations for floating solar installations

Spain sets forth regulations for floating solar installations to bolster energy security

Responding to the energy crisis instigated by the war in Ukraine, the Government of Spain has outlined a set of regulations for the installation of floating solar power plants on around a hundred state-owned hydropower reservoirs.

The set of regulations, issued by Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and put under public consultation, aims to provide legal framework for the installation of floating solar power plants in the public hydropower domain, and in other publicly-owned hydropower infrastructures.

National Response Plan

In this way, the Spanish Government wants to determine the conditions that must be met in the administrative authorizations and concessions for the commissioning of the floating solar plants, which will allow for a more sustainable use of the public hydropower resources and offer better preservation and protection of these water bodies. The move represents one of the measures approved late in March 2022 in the National

Response Plan, launched to mitigate the potential consequences of the war in Ukraine to the economic and social wellbeing of Spain.

The installation of floating solar plants on hydropower reservoirs will boost the renewable energy generation capacity of Spain, which is essential to accelerate the energy transition and reduce the country’s dependance on fossil fuel energy imports, MITECO said. This is in line with the World Energy Transitions Outlook, released late in March 2022 by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), where it calls on governments to fast-track energy transition for more energy security, resilience, and affordable energy for all. More importantly – on the grand scale of things – this would also help keep the hopes of 1.5°C alive.

In addition, the Spanish government’s plan will facilitate the achievement of the goals set out in its Climate Change and Energy Transition Law, which aim for 42% of renewable energies in the country’s total electricity consumption, and an electricity system with 74% renewable generation in the mix by 2030.

The floating solar capacity to be added to the energy produced by the hydropower plants will increase the total production of the facilities and optimize the export infrastructure. These plants are also expected to have higher energy efficiency than land-based systems, thanks to the cooling effects of the water and the reduced presence of dust particles on solar panels, according to MITECO.

Environmental qualities

The regulations foresee a maximum of three floating power plants per reservoir with partial coverage of the water body, in accordance to its environmental qualities: the worse the quality of the water, the greater its coverage may be. In this sense, the maximum percentage of the total area covered will be limited to 5% if the reservoir is classified as mesotrophic, that is, if it has a moderate level of biological productivity; 15% if it is eutrophic, which has a high biological productivity; and 20% if it is hypereutrophic, with very low water quality.

Plants will not be installed in oligotrophic reservoirs (with low biological productivity and therefore good water quality), nor in lakes or lagoons of natural origin. Currently, there are around a hundred stateowned reservoirs in Spain on which this type of power plants could be located, according to the government.

MITECO and the relevant organizations will carry out a detailed assessment of each one of them, to be able to establish the rate of coverage in order to guarantee compliance with the environmental objectives. Floating solar power generation facilities on state-owned hydropower reservoirs will receive permits via temporary concessions with a maximum duration of 25 years.

Interested parties must have a connection permit to a point of the electricity transmission or distribution network and submit studies on the possible impact of the solar panels on the body of water. In addition, the hydropower basin organizations may request technical reports from the concessionaire to assess the effects of the installation on the management of the public hydropower domain, safety and exploitation of infrastructures, compatibility of the use with respect for the environment and the guarantee of water flow, and other ecological or the environmental demands foreseen in the hydrological planning.

Evaporation of water

The installation of floating solar power plants will be beneficial both for energy production and for the environment, MITECO claims. This has also been stated by other companies and organizations in Europe, who have conducted some preliminary research both for operational floating power plants and via simulation and modelling.

Among other advantages, a reduction in the evaporation of water masses and a decrease in the presence of algae blooms in fresh water are expected thanks to shade the floating solar panels will provide on the surface. They will also prevent land modification that occurs at onshore facilities, therefore preserving valuable land for other uses.

Given that the concept of floating photovoltaics is still considered novel and emerging, follow-up programs will be established to better understand the characteristics of these installations, considering the possible impacts they may have and the ways to optimize their uptake. To this end, MITECO said it would prepare manuals, technical guides or recommendations to lead the implementation of the floating solar technology, and will continue to closely monitor the development of these renewable energy plants.