Exploring climate-driven performance of floating photovoltaic systems: Energy production enhancement and evaporation reduction

This study evaluates four floating photovoltaic (FPV) system configurations across 4,244 water bodies in diverse climates: semi-arid, desert, Marine West Coast, Mediterranean, and tundra, considering variations such as dry summers or winters, coastal influence, and mountain influence. The Penman–Monteith model is chosen to predict evaporation due to its low Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Mean Square Error (MSE). Results indicate that the greatest water savings occur in cold desert climates with dry winters (BWk(w)), achieving reductions of up to 2066.15 mm per year. Significant water-energy synergies are observed in Type-A and Type-D configurations, where the support system fully covers the water under the FPV, leading to improvements in energy production, with a median reaching up to 8187.65 Wh/m2/year and a median evaporation saving of 1085.24 mm/year for the Type-A configuration in the BSk(w) climate. Tundra climates (ET) generally show less evaporation, but dry winters (ET(w)) and summers (ET(s)) enhance performance. ET(w) achieves a median energy production increase of 6430.7 Wh/m2/year and a median evaporation saving of 1165.20 mm/year, while ET(s) follows closely with 5997.42 Wh/m2/year and 794.06 mm/year in savings. The module temperature reduction (ΔT) is crucial for FPV performance. Higher ΔT, such as 7.60 °C in BSk(w), boosts energy production and evaporation savings, increasing panel efficiency by up to 1.45%. Conversely, lower ΔT climates, like Cfc at 4.26°C, exhibit reduced efficiency. This paper provides a comprehensive characterization of FPV system performance across a wide range of climates, demonstrating their potential to enhance energy production and reduce water loss.