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1.8 million solar panels, a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and a price tag of nearly $1 billion. If it were up to China Energy, Zimbabwe would get a giant floating solar park.

China Energy (in full: China Energy Engineering Corporation) recently presented the plans to the Zimbabwean government, reports. And the Chinese state-owned energy company did so for good reason. The Zimbabwean government came up with several incentive schemes late last year, which should provide 1,100 megawatts of new solar power capacity through 2025. In addition, the African country can currently meet less than half of its own energy demand because of dated coal-fired power plants and hydroelectric plants that are performing worse due to low water levels. In other words, additional (renewable) energy capacity is more than welcome.

Floating solar panels

Floating solar panels have several advantages. For one, the water provides natural cooling for the solar panels. This is nice, because solar panels do not perform as well in hot temperatures. The solar panels, in turn, have a cooling effect on the water, which is also nice. That's because it causes less water to evaporate. Researchers that if 30 percent of the world's basins were fitted with solar panels, 100 cubic kilometers less water would evaporate each year. That's enough to provide drinking water for 300 million people.

Another important advantage of floating solar parks: they utilize areas that do not (or cannot) serve any other function. This is in contrast to the (agricultural) land where most solar parks are currently found.

Hydropower and solar energy

The proposed floating solar park in Zimbabwe is to be located in the largest water reservoir in the world: the Kariba Dam. A hydropower plant with a capacity of 1,050 megawatts can also be found there. The combination of hydropower and solar energy could be an important step toward a sustainable and reliable energy supply in the African country.

Solar parks at sea

An international group of scientists recently pointed out the enormous potential of floating solar parks. They calculated that floating solar parks could supply over of the world's electricity demand.

Floating solar parks are currently installed mostly on still waters (such as lakes), but there are also opportunities on the open sea. At the end of last year it was announced that SolarDuck from Tiel is going to build . The solar farm will have a capacity of 5 megawatts and should be floating between the wind turbines of wind farm Hollandse Kust West VII in 2026.

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