Flexible Floating Football-Field Sized Solar Panels (digitaltrends.com)

mdsolar writes: Offshore wind farms are growing in popularity as energy providers look for different ways of harvesting power from the sun without using valuable land resources. One unique idea being developed by engineers at Vienna University of Technology is a floating platform called a Heliofloat that would function as a sea-based solar power station.... an open-bottom, flexible float as large as a football field and covered from edge to edge with solar panels. Heliofloats can operate as standalone platforms for smaller operations with moderate energy requirements. Multiple heliofloats also can be connected together, forming a floating solar-harvesting power grid.
Each heliofloat is 100 meters long, reportedly cheap and easy to build, and may eventually be used to power desalination plants and biomass extraction.

Comments

Re:California and Oceania

[Mr D from 63]

Offshore wind is done only because of the favorable winds, not because of land costs or availability. Solar doesn't need to go offshore, it only adds to the cost. If you've ever been around ocean mist, you know how quickly it covers clear surfaces with deposits.

Hydropower reservoirs

[Framboise]

A good place to put such floating panels are the hydropower reservoirs.
Large surface is available, of little use, power lines and converters are nearby, and the wind is less strong at the bottom of these lake than on sea.