Nature’s holistic use of floating solar panels has been investigated

The Sparkles consortium will receive more than €2.8 million from the NWA Responsible Scale-up of Solar on Water program to conduct research into the use of floating solar panels.

The consortium – made up of scientists and public and private partners, including STOWA – wants to create the technological, environmental and social conditions under which floating solar has a “sustainable” future for people and nature.

The National Science Agenda (NWA) was created through a creative process of citizens and scientists. The goal of NWA is to use knowledge to make a positive structural contribution to the society of tomorrow by building bridges today to ensure both scientific and social impact.

The use of solar energy is important for the energy transition, otherwise the Netherlands would not be able to achieve its ambitions under the climate agreement. To save space on land, space that could also be used for agriculture and housing, for example, the installation of floating solar panels on water is being considered. However, the environmental implications of this are not yet fully determined. This leads to fears in the community. The policy and legislation for this application is still under development.

In the consortium, energy and environmental sciences and public administration are working together to remove obstacles that currently stand in the way of the responsible upscaling of solar panels. This forms the basis of an important social breakthrough: after all, space in the Netherlands is scarce and requires synergies in energy generation that also yield benefits from the ecosystems of people and nature.

To achieve this breakthrough, Sparkles combines integrative knowledge-gathering with effective collaboration across disciplines (sciences alongside public and private partners).
A scheme is also underway to educate the current and next generation of environmental and energy professionals.

The initiators of this call are the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) and of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV). Stowa is the knowledge center for regional water managers (often water boards) in the Netherlands.

Pron: Stowa