Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Construction has completed a 2 MW floating solar array on an agricultural pond in Sakaide, Kagawa Prefecture, on the Japanese island of Shikoku.
It has secured a 20-year tariff for the Haisuke floating solar plant under Japan's feed-in tariff scheme. It is the third floating PV project build by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction in Japan to date.
It built the project with its PuKaTTo proprietary floating technology, which it started to develop in 2015. “Including the Haisuke project, we have provided our floating solutions for seven projects in Japan and five abroad,” Sumitomo Mitsui Construction said.
It claims that the technology is easy to deploy and highly durable. The 9.7 kg floats are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and feature UV-absorbing agents. They also include components for mooring cables. The floats are connected via 2 kg bridges that also serve as walkways for construction and maintenance workers. The floats have wide openings at the center to help cool off the PV panels by using the water.
The company mounted upright stands on each float to produce a 10-degree angle for the PV panels. It placed a scaffolding float on the outer part of the float as a scaffold for the installation and maintenance of the mooring rope. It also used binding bands to fix the floats together and bolts to attach the solar panels brackets to the floats. The company said the use of the binding bands enables the deployment of a floating array within a matter of hours.
The technology can host 60-cell and 72-cell modules from different manufacturers. The floats come with a 10-year warranty for both float and binding bands.
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