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The Alqueba power plant in eastern Portugal is Europe’s largest floating solar and hydroelectric hybrid and is a stunning innovation.
on the road We visited a ground-breaking project by Portuguese energy company EDP that offers a glimpse into the potential future of renewable energy. Located on Europe’s largest man-made lake, this hybrid project shows how efficient energy solutions can be created by combining different renewable resources.
Enrit spoke to Pedro Miguel Oliveira, Director of Innovation at EDP Generation, who explained that Arqueva is made up of three key components. A floating solar power plant with 12,000 solar panels and an installed capacity of 5MW. A storage battery system with a storage capacity of approximately 2MWh.
Hybrids combine two renewable energy sources into the same injection point into the grid, Oliveira said. “This is efficient because it uses existing infrastructure, including all connection points, substations, and lines. And by connecting these projects to hydropower plants, we save a lot of money and the environment. It can also reduce the impact on
A pioneering example of hybridization
Alqueva stands out for its pioneering approach to hybridization. It’s not just about combining solar and hydropower, it’s about intelligent management. The project will serve as a real-world testing ground for realizing complementarity between renewable energy production and storage technologies.
Here’s how to achieve this:
- Solar power plants, batteries and hydropower are integrated into an intelligent management system.
- Battery storage enables EDP to explore the complementarity of hydro-solar power generation, reinforcing the innovative nature of the project.and
- The battery uses mature lithium-ion technology, a proven and widely used solution in the global power sector.
Innovation in every corner
EDP’s commitment to innovation is evident throughout the Alqueva project, especially in its cost-effective design. For example, the project benefited from the FreShER project, a European-funded initiative that aims to significantly reduce the cost of anchoring and mooring systems by 60%.
Meanwhile, the unusual east-west panel orientation significantly reduces wind resistance on the platform, reducing mooring lines and reducing costs.
Prioritize sustainability
This project was built with sustainability in mind.
Oliveira said: “Typically conventional solar power uses land and there is associated deforestation. [with it]. For this particular project, we will be using basically an unoccupied area as it is a safe area of the dam. ”
In addition to the fact that the project requires no additional land, sustainability is also prioritized through the innovation of a pontoon floater that incorporates recycled plastic and the world’s first cork composite from Amorim Cork Composites and Isigenere.
By introducing cork, EDP has reduced the footprint of these floaters by 30%.
Challenges and solutions: bird waste and robot vacuums
To keep the system clean and generate electricity when needed, EDP introduced robots to clean the solar panels. The panels are flat so the robot can easily move from one point to another and from one string to the next.
It’s simpler, safer and reduces cleaning time by 50%, Oliveira emphasized.
Watch the full video to learn how EDP is ahead of the TALOS project, a European initiative focused on developing autonomous robots that can clean platforms without human intervention.
This article was originally published on Enlit.
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