Solar panels more efficient on water in Japan
Developers first placed solar panels on water years ago to address land-based space constraints. Now, they’re finding floating plants may be more efficient.
In a year-long study in Hyogo prefecture north of Osaka, solar panels installed on a reservoir generated 14 percent more power than those set up on the rooftop of an office building, according to the local authorities who conducted the review.
“Water keeps panels cool,” said Hajime Mori, the head of operations in Japan for Ciel et Terre International SAS, a French company involved in many floating-solar projects around the world. That cooling effect allows the units to work more efficiently than modules on traditional mounts, which tend to heat up in the sun.
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In China, the developer Xinyi Solar Holdings Ltd. has completed a 20-megawatt solar farm in Huainan City about 300 miles northwest of Shanghai the Anhui Province. That project, which Xinyi calls the world’s largest floating PV plant, is located on a body of water created from subsided land over a coal mine.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-06/more-spark-from-the-sun-spurs-floating-solar-plants-across-japan
To cool the panels if one installs them in an air-tight shallow box to move air for that and use the heat a thermal-mass to supply space-heating [and cooling to collect at night].
One company has panels that use a thermal-fluid pricey yet feeds a heat-pump so an integrated system my idea works for any new install and uses standard 3-1/4x10 ducting.
The point is direct-thermal collection & storage are missing from architecture, the Hogan is 10-times more thermally efficient than a modern home similar for the Great Prairie sod house.
If you add a layer of soil-contact foam it isolates the dirt contained as thermal-mass instead of slowly conducting heat all the time. Insulating from the outside is 3-4 times less heat-loss than a standard wood frame construction from greatly reducing conduction.
This is the heat-transfer model run 6.67-hrs standard wall above additional 1-1/2" insulation board under the siding with furring strips to let condensation drip away on top of the sheathing, white 20C/68F, blue 0C/32F, this cuts losses to 1/3 original.
Think what that does to heating & AC grid loads no longer needing to supply that energy when scaled up.