Flower-Shaped Floating Solar Farm Planned at South Korea’s Hapcheon Dam

Hanwha Q CELLS GmbH plans to build a 41-megawatt solar farm to float alongside the Hapcheon Dam in South Korea.

The company will begin building the project later this year, which it said will be the biggest floating solar farm permitted in South Korea. The solar panels will form a shape inspired by the plum blossom, the symbolic flower of the region.

Floating solar is increasingly popular as a way to find new space to build renewable power plants. Q Cells estimates the plant will generate as much as 10% more power compared to solar farms on land because of the cooling effect of the water and the lack of shadows.

Another advantage of installing panels on dam reservoirs is easy access to grid connection.

BloombergNEF is tracking more than 200 solar projects on the water, with about half of them in South Korea. While floating solar is generally more expensive than projects on land, it’s a good way to build in a place where land for solar projects is expensive and in limited supply.

“In South Korea, it’s not a choice between building slightly cheaper solar on the ground or more expensive on the water – it’s a choice between building or not building,” said Jenny Chase, solar analyst at BloombergNEF.

Source: Bloomberg L.P.