📩 03/10/2023 14:08
ASKİ General Directorate brings the "Floating Solar Power Plant (SPP)" application, which was previously implemented in countries such as Japan, USA, China, India and France, to Turkey. ASKİ General Manager Memduh Aslan Akçay stated that work has been initiated for the installation of floating solar power plants on the Bayındır Dam in Mamak district and that some of the electrical energy needs of the institution will be met in this way.
ASKİ General Directorate, which provides drinking and utility water to the Ankara population and carries out canal and infrastructure works, is preparing to implement the "Floating Solar System" in the capital.
ASKİ General Manager Memduh Aslan Akçay noted that some of ASKİ's electricity needs will be provided by the Floating Solar System and announced that Bayındır Dam in Mamak district was chosen as the "model application" area for the project carried out within the R&D Department.
IT SAVES WATER BY REDUCING EVAPORATION
Regarding the project, Akçay stated that unlicensed electricity generation applications were completed last June, and ground drilling operations were carried out on July 26, 2023. Akçay said that the installation of ten grid floating solar power plants with a photovoltaic panel capacity of 990 kWp on the Bayındır Dam is planned to be completed by December 2023.
Explaining the project, Akçay said:
“According to data, approximately 2023 percent of our total installed power in Turkey in July 9,9 was provided by solar power plants. Floating Solar Energy Application, which does not require land as it can be installed in lakes, treatment plants and irrigation ponds and thus reduces costs significantly, increases electricity efficiency by 15 percent per year compared to a standard solar project. "In addition, since the system cuts the direct contact of the water surface accumulated in the basin with the sun, it also saves water by reducing evaporation by 55 percent in the area where it is installed."
Considering the average area required for floating solar power installation, Akçay noted that there is an installed capacity of approximately 33,7 GWp near Ankara and said, “But of course, this system is not allowed everywhere. We want to carry this special application, which functions with the help of the buoyancy of water because it has a floating architecture, to other areas that are suitable for the procedure in the future. Because we can meet a significant part of our energy needs by using idle water surfaces instead of our lands. One of the most important contributions of the system is that the installation time is shorter than fixed solar power plants installed on land. "In this way, the investment can be completed and production output can be achieved in a short time," he said.
TURKEY WILL BE THE FIRST
Countries in the world such as China, Japan, USA, England, Netherlands, Germany, South Korea and France give priority to Floating Solar Power Plant installation. The first Floating Solar Power Plant was used in a vineyard in California, USA, in 2006. Thus, 150 thousand dollars of income was obtained annually by planting grapes in the area where the solar power plant was planned to be built.
After the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011, Japan gave incentives for the installation of Floating Solar Power Plants. In Turkey, the system trials in question were started by other municipalities in 2017, but unfortunately the power plant could not be used due to the snow and wind loads not being calculated effectively. For this reason, the project implemented by ASKİ will be a first for Türkiye.