BANGALORE “We firmly believe Floating PV Panels are beneficial to the water ecosystem and does not harm the environment in anyway,” said Uma Rajarathnam, chief, Clean Energy and Environment Practise (CEEP), Enzen Global Solutions. The company had recently tied up with the French company Ciel et Terre to develop projects which would utilize water bodies to float panels which would generate between 2-3 MW of power. Replying to doubts raised about the effects the panels might have since they block sunlight, she said, “The covered area will be less than 1/3rd of the total water surface. The panels will have space between them to allow sunlight to get in and there will also be aerators installed with the panels which will increase the water oxygen content.” Uma Rajarathnam responded to queries about battery leakage by pointing out that the power generated from the panels would be fed directly into the grid. “There are no batteries involved and we are not looking at storing any of the power generated,” she said. “This technology is currently in the process of being implemented in France. 3-4 Projects are being worked on and around 42MW of generation is expected,” said Ashwin Sabapathy, general manager, CEEP. He added that around 80 water bodies exist in and around the city which could hold these floating panels. “With 2-3 MW per water body, we are looking at generating around 100MW,” he said. Enzen currently is searching for a proper tank to implement a pilot project outside the city. “Once we test how the technology works, we will consider bringing it to Bangalore,” he said. “Tanks were once the life support systems of South India. This technology would fuel revival of tanks all over the state. Karnataka can be the pioneer in adopting such cutting edge measures for power generation,” said Rajarathnam. She added that the current plans of the company was to only consider man-made tanks for such projects as natural water bodies would have their own fragile ecosystems which might be thrown off balance.
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