Korea's Graceful FPV Project at Hapcheong could be a model for US

Aesthetics and Floating Solar combine in ecological engineering success.

Floating solar installation in South Korea gracefully portrays the plum blossom. Photo: Q CELLS

South Korea’s Q Cells is a world leader in the alternative energy field. They are to be acknowledged for the graceful and biomimetic Floating PhotoVoltaics (FPV) design currently under construction on Hapcheong reservoir in South Korea. The design is inspired by the plum blossom—the symbolic flower of the region! The project exceeds local energy demand and demonstrates several principals of solid ecological engineering.

Q Cells' focus on quality control is demonstrated by their years of quality assurance research supporting development of heat and moisture resistant PV panel design. According to this article, their efforts have resulted in a state-of-the-art project that will generate some 41 MegaWatts of clean solar power for the region.

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In the US, the only solutions that make sense are those that generate revenue sufficient to provide clients with ongoing, sustainable revenue, with improved water quality as a “byproduct.”
Bruce Kania

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Floating PhotoVoltaics is emerging as one of solar energy's rising stars, based in its use of under-utilized space on water. Asia is particularly responsive to this opportunity. In North America, where we still have great expanses of land that developers are always eyeing, Floating PhotoVoltaics could introduce another key environmental benefit.

By integrating the nutrient cycling features of BioHaven floating treatment wetland modules into FPV projects, large waterbodies can be protected from Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs), which are moving towards pandemic levels of incidence in locations associated with agricultural use of conventional fertilizers.

The future is bright for those large waterways where scalable fixes for HAB containment have been lacking. Only now are we recognizing that nutrient impaired water is actually fixable, and the only solutions that make sense are those that generate revenue sufficient to provide clients with ongoing, sustainable revenue, with improved water quality as a “byproduct.”

There are now some 9,000 BioHaven floating island modules launched internationally. We are like the McDonald’s hamburger signs from the early sixties, as they were reaching for “million burgers” status! The future is bright for both, water and sustainable energy development.