While the practice of installing solar panels on the rooftops of homes to generate solar power is familiar to most, there is another form of solar power generation that’s also beginning to become more common: floating solar power farms.

A Solar Farm in the London Suburbs

In March 2016, the world’s largest floating solar power farm was installed on top of the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir at Walton-on-Thames, a suburb of London located near Heathrow Airport. The floating power station, which cost £6m (about $8 million) and took five years to plan and three months to build, will be used to generate power for local water treatment plants which provide clean drinking water to 10 million residents in London and south-east England.

The new floating pontoon covers around a tenth of the 128.8 hectare-reservoir and includes 23,046 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels measuring 57,500 square meters, all fastened to the bottom of the reservoir with 177 anchors.

The solar farm is part of Thames Water’s efforts to generate a third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, as well as to reduce its dependence on the grid. And the new pontoon will play a vital role in that effort, as it is expected to generate 5.8 million kilowatt hours of power in its first year alone—the equivalent of the annual power consumption of about 1,800 homes.

“Becoming a more sustainable business is integral to our long-term strategy and this innovative new project brings us one step closer to achieving our goal — this is the right thing for our customers, the right thing for our stakeholders, and most importantly the right thing for the environment,” said Angus Berry, energy manager for Thames Water.

Lightsource Renewable Energy, Europe’s leading solar energy company, oversaw the project and said that some of the biggest advantages of installing solar panels on water as opposed to land are that the water helps keep both the panels and wires cool, which increases the overall efficiency in producing solar power.

Easier to Assemble than Traditional Solar

Plus, unlike traditional rooftop installations, floating solar panels are easier to assemble. For example, in the Queen Elizabeth II project, each panel was mounted on an air-filled float on land and then fastened to other panels to form a large floating platform. Once completed, the entire platform was then pushed out into the water. The panels can’t be seen from any nearby roads, but they are visible from the sky.

Floating solar power farms are becoming popular in urban centers like London, Japan, and Manchester, where space is at a premium and waterways offer a plethora of otherwise unused space. They are also growing in popularity with businesses that want to simultaneously generate their own power yet reduce their environmental impact.

“There is a great need from energy-intensive industries to reduce their carbon footprint, as well as the amount that they are spending on electricity, and solar can be the perfect solution,” said Nick Boyle, chief executive officer of Lightsource.

And who knows. Perhaps someday soon we’ll even see a large number of consumers who have huge ponds or other sizeable waterways in their backyard installing their own floating solar farms.

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