Reliability-aware techno-economic assessment of floating solar power systems

Floating solar photovoltaic systems (FPV) have emerged as a promising technology to harness solar energy on water surfaces. With its numerous benefits, including increased land availability, reduced water evaporation, and improved system cooling, FPV systems hold great potential for sustainable energy generation. However, due to its unique installation and operation in water bodies, the management of ageing becomes a critical factor to ensure long-term success. Consequently, reliability analysis plays a pivotal role in predicting and mitigating operational risks and estimating the economic feasibility of FPV projects. In this context, this paper presents a reliability-aware techno-economic assessment approach of FPV systems. The approach is tested with a case study in India, and the results are compared with ground-based photovoltaic (GPV) systems. Here, different failure and repair strategies are taken into account to determine the lifetime performance. Results showed that even though FPV system has higher failure rate, considering standard maintenance, the energy generated by the FPV system is 5.38% higher than similar GPV system. The cost of electricity by the PV system depends on the repair and maintenance. For normal maintenance the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for FPV system is calculated as 0.0551 $/kWh which is comparable to the LCOE by GPV systems, while for reduced repair actions, the LCOE of the FPV is higher than the LCOE of the GPV system.