Modeling and Design of Floating Solar PV Systems for Buildings

Malaysia aims to increase its solar power in the coming years due to the huge potential available based on the country's climate and weather conditions. The inefficient energy consumption in buildings contributes to the waste of energy that will affect the rise of electricity bill payments and potentially result in a maximum demand penalty. This research will present a study on energy consumption at Heriot-Watt University Malaysia, and a potential site to build a floating solar photovoltaic (PV) plant to offset the energy used in the university. With this, an optimal design and layout of a floating solar PV system will be presented in this paper to determine the lake area needed for the solar plant to generate energy as much as the building consumes and to potentially sell the excess to the electrical grid. The outcome resulted in a 1794 kWp floating solar plant with a tilt/azimuth of 15°/0° and an area of 9041.61 m². The annual energy produced was 2644840 kWh/year with a performance ratio of 83.13%.