Amount Awarded: $25,000
Offshore deployment of floating solar panels represents a critical yet underexplored frontier in the global transition toward clean and sustainable energy. While photovoltaic systems are rapidly expanding on land, they face increasing spatial constraints, particularly in densely populated regions. Floating solar panels offer a promising alternative by utilizing water surfaces for energy generation. Such systems have been deployed on lakes and sheltered waters since 2007; however, extending the technology to the open sea remains a major challenge due to harsh marine conditions, including dynamic wave loading, corrosion, anchoring instability, and long-term durability.
This project brings together complementary expertise from the University of Agder and the University of California, Berkeley to develop a prototypical offshore floating solar panel system through the co-design of physical structures and digital twinning algorithms. The research is organized into three work packages. WP1 focuses on the design, modeling, and simulation of modular floating solar panel arrays to assess structural performance and reliability under offshore loading. WP2 develops a digital twin framework for real-time monitoring, Bayesian learning, and risk-informed decision-making. WP3 supports knowledge exchange and dissemination through two coordinated events: a closed working session at UC Berkeley to accelerate collaborative development, and a public dissemination workshop at the University of Agder to share outcomes and foster future research and engagement.
The prototypical floating solar panel system will serve as a proof of concept, demonstrating adaptability to dynamically evolving offshore environments. By addressing key structural and operational challenges, the project advances the broader vision of making floating solar panels a scalable and reliable solution for offshore renewable energy. It also lays the foundation for long-term testbed development and sustained international collaboration in offshore energy research and technology.