A new report outlines the country’s ample ​“floatovoltaics” opportunity. Floating solar arrays have already taken off in some Asian and European countries.

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Floating solar photovoltaics, also called ​“floatovoltaics,” is an emerging technology that’s taken off in countries across Asia and Europe, especially near urban areas with limited space available for land-based solar.

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Even under the most conservative scenario the researchers considered, the potential of floating solar equals more than half of the solar capacity required for a fully carbon-free grid in the U.S. in 2050.

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But so far, floating solar only makes up a tiny fraction of the U.S. solar market and is mostly limited to small-scale projects, including at a wastewater treatment plant in Healdsburg, California; a reservoir in Cohoes, New York; and a lake at the Fort Liberty military base in North Carolina. The country’s largest floating solar project is an 8.9-megawatt installation at a water treatment plant in Millburn, New Jersey.

Compare that with projects like Thailand’s 45-MW floating solar farm in the Sirindhorn Dam reservoir, or China’s massive 550-MW system that sits atop a body of water used for fish farming in the city of Wenzhou. ​“In the United States, we don’t have a single project over 10 MW,” said study co-author Aaron Levine.

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