The Daily

Solar Panels are great for generating electricity, but they need a lot of room to do their job. While most are put on rooftops, large installations of solar farms cover a lot of land that could be used for farming and housing. In Australia we are lucky have a lot of land to place solar panels, but that isn’t the case with countries that live near the Equator. With high population densities it can be difficult to find space to deploy solar panels. Perhaps the solutions lies not on land, but out at sea? 

One alternate approach to this problem is floating solar panels, casting them over calm portions of the ocean to generate electricity for counties that lack the space to set up solar using traditional methods. Dr. Matt Wright spoke with Jack Gembitsky about the potential solutions floating solar panels can offer, as well as some of the difficulties and factors that need to be considered to get this project up and running.

If you’d like to check out the Australian National University study mentioned in this episode, check out this link here:
https://re100.eng.anu.edu.au/offshore_solar_atlas/

The Renewable Energy Update is a regular segment on 2SER, where Dr Matt Wright checks in on the developments happening in the space of renewable energy. Listen to past episodes here.