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The Netherlands is facing challenges to achieve (inter)national climate mitigation objectives in
limited time, budget and space. Drastic innovative measures such as floating solar parks are high on
political agendas and are entering our water systems. The clear advantages of floating solar led to a
fast deployment of renewable energy sources without extensive research to adequately evaluate the
impacts on our environment. Acquisition of research data with holistic monitoring methods are
needed in order to prevent disinvestments, protect the environment, and contribute to making
Green Energy Resources Greener.
In GREEN, multiple SMEs with different expertise and technologies joined efforts with researchers
from Hanzehogeschool and Saxion and public parties to answer the research question “Which
monitoring technologies and intelligent data interpretation techniques are required to be able to
conduct comprehensive, efficient and cost-effective monitoring of the impacts of floating solar panels
in their surroundings?"
The outputs after this two-year project include:
● A novel monitoring method for collection/analysis of water quality and ecology datasets,
using state of the art sensors and aquatic drones for automation of water quality and
ecology measurements.
● Database and inventory of existing floating solar projects
● Multiple workshops organized with public & private partners and stakeholders.
● Open source publications with data analysis and discussion of results.
● Project results have a global interest and consortium partners aim at upscaling for the
international market.
This project contributed to improve the knowledge of the involved partners in this topic and on the
use of new monitoring technologies and contributed to establish links to other networks and
position them at the forefront of floating solar market opportunities. This project also contributed to
various educational curricula and for the ClimateCafé initiative in Universities of Applied Sciences.
Click here for a video that gives an impression of the project.
The Netherlands is facing great challenges to achieve (inter)national climate mitigation objectives in limited time, budget and space. Drastic innovative measures such as floating solar parks are high on political agendas and are entering our water systems . The clear advantages of floating solar (multifunctional use of space) led to a fast deployment of renewable energy sources without extensive research to adequately evaluate the impacts on our environment. Acquisition of research data with holistic monitoring methods are urgently needed in order to prevent disinvestments.
In this proposal ten SMEs with different expertise and technologies are joining efforts with researchers and four public parties (and 12 indirectly involved) to answer the research question “Which monitoring technologies and intelligent data interpretation techniques are required to be able to conduct comprehensive, efficient and cost-effective monitoring of the impacts of floating solar panels in their surroundings?"
The outputs after a two-year project will play a significant and indispensable role in making Green Energy Resources Greener. Specific output includes a detailed inventory of existing projects, monitoring method for collection/analysis of datasets (parameters/footage on climate, water quality, ecology) on the effects of floating solar panels on the environment using heterogeneous unmanned robots, workshops with public & private partners and stakeholders, scientific and technical papers and update of national guidelines for optimizing the relationship between solar panels and the surrounding environment.
Project results have a global interest and the consortium partners aim at upscaling for the international market. This project will enrich the involved partners with their practical knowledge, and SMEs will be equipped with the new technologies to be at the forefront and benefit from the increasing floating solar market opportunities. This project will also make a significant contribution to various educational curricula in universities of applied sciences.