Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • COMMENT

Floating solar power could help fight climate change — let’s get it right

Covering 10% of the world’s hydropower reservoirs with ‘floatovoltaics’ would install as much electrical capacity as is currently available for fossil-fuel power plants. But the environmental and social impacts must be assessed.
  1. Rafael M. Almeida

    1. Rafael M. Almeida is an assistant professor in the School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Texas, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Rafael Schmitt

    1. Rafael Schmitt is a senior scientist at the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University, California, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  3. Steven M. Grodsky

    1. Steven M. Grodsky is co-founder and co-director of the Wild Energy Initiative, Institute of the Environment, University of California, Davis, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  4. Alexander S. Flecker

    1. Alexander S. Flecker is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  5. Carla P. Gomes

    1. Carla P. Gomes is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and director of the Institute for Computational Sustainability, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  6. Lu Zhao

    1. Lu Zhao is director of renewables and energy-storage systems at Envision Digital International, Singapore.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  7. Haohui Liu

    1. Haohui Liu is a senior staff scientist at Envision Digital International, Singapore.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  8. Nathan Barros

    1. Nathan Barros is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  9. Rafael Kelman

    1. Rafael Kelman is executive director of PSR Inc., Brazil.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  10. Peter B. McIntyre

    1. Peter B. McIntyre is an associate professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Panorama view of a water reservoir with floating solar panels leading to land under the sunlight.

Reservoirs could offer alternatives to land for hosting solar panels. Credit: Valentyn Semenov/Alamy

Solar panels need to be deployed over vast areas worldwide to decarbonize electricity. By 2050, the United States might need up to 61,000 square kilometres of solar panels — an area larger than the Netherlands1. Land-scarce nations such as Japan and South Korea might have to devote 5% of their land to solar farms2.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 606, 246-249 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01525-1

References

  1. Larson, E. et al. Net-Zero America: Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts (Princeton Univ., 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  2. van de Ven, D.-J. et al. Sci. Rep. 11, 2907 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. van Zalk, J. & Behrens, P. Energy Policy 123, 83–91 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Lu, Z. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 48, e2020GL090789 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Grodsky, S. M. & Hernandez, R. R. Nature Sustain. 3, 1036–1043 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Barron-Gafford, G. A. et al. Nature Sustain. 2, 848–855 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Dörenkämper, M. et al. Solar Energy 219, 15–23 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Redón Santafé, M. et al. Energy 67, 246–255 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lee, N. et al. Renew. Energy 162, 1415–1427 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Almeida, R. M. et al. Nature Commun. 10, 4281 (2019).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. IRENA. Energy from the Sea: An Action Agenda for Deploying Offshore Renewables Worldwide (IRENA, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  12. BP. Statistical Review of World Energy 2021 (BP, 2021).

    Google Scholar 

  13. World Bank Group, ESMAP & SERIS. Where Sun Meets Water: Floating Solar Market Report (World Bank, 2018).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Cazzaniga, R. & Rosa-Clot, M. Solar Energy 219, 3–10 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Woolway, R. I. et al. Nature 589, 402–407 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Exley, G., Armstrong, A., Page, T. & Jones, I. D. Solar Energy 219, 24–33 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Supplementary Information

  1. Supplementary figure and methods

Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • Postdoctoral Fellow

    The Dubal Laboratory of Neuroscience and Aging at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) seeks postdoctoral fellows to investigate the ...

    San Francisco, California

    University of California, San Francsico

  • Postdoctoral Associate

    Houston, Texas (US)

    Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow

    Description Applications are invited for a postdoctoral fellow position at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, to participate...

    Toronto (City), Ontario (CA)

    Sinai Health

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate - Surgery

    Memphis, Tennessee

    St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude)

  • Open Rank Faculty Position in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

    The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics (www.virginia.edu/bmg) and the University of Virginia Cancer Center

    Charlottesville, Virginia

    Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links