Solarplaza hosted the world’s first dedicated floating solar conference in Amsterdam in September 2019. Steve Williams, Managing Director of Clean Solar Solutions, was asked to speak on the subject ‘Cleaning & Maintaining Floating Solar Arrays’.
After scooping the ‘Best Solar Industry Innovator of the Year’ award the night previous, Steve showed part of the reason he won the award with his explanation of issues faced when maintaining a floating solar array. He presented an innovative ‘no-holds-barred’ presentation, showing the realities faced by O&M companies in regard to cleaning and poor system design and build. An abbreviated version of the presentation can be seen in the video below.
He started with a ‘History of Floating Solar in the UK’, explaining how floating solar has started to gain traction in the UK, but through lack of long term-knowledge about maintenance, was also able to explain about ‘Harsh Lessons Learned’.
One of the biggest issues of any floating solar array is that of birds. He explained how they will come and how they will come en masse. This influx of birds is often unanticipated and can be damaging not only to the solar array itself, but also to business models and financial projects for the array.
SEE ALSO: Solar Panels At Europe’s First Floating Solar Farm Cleaned By Clean Solar Solutions
After showing some pretty devastating pictures of the effects that bird colonies have on floating solar arrays, Steve explained how the consultancy arm of Clean Solar Solutions can help, right from a pre-planning phase, into design phase and then beyond into the longer term maintenance of the floating array.
The presentation was warmly received, the honesty of the presentation appreciated and as a result, Clean Solar Solutions are now talking with a number of companies about how consultancy for cleaning and maintenance of floating solar arrays will prove to be money well spent when examining the long-term profitability of the asset.
If you need advice about maintaining a floating solar array or any other solar panel cleaning-related issue, please feel free to contact us.