Solar panels floating on reservoirs could power up to 100 million homes in the United States each year, according to a recent study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The study published in Solar Energy analyzed the solar-hosting potential of reservoirs that are federally owned or regulated. It found that they could hold enough floating solar panels to generate more than 1.4 million gigawatt hours of energy per year.
“Even if you developed 10 percent of that, that goes a long way to these expanding energy needs,” said Aaron Levine, a senior legal and regulatory analyst at NREL and lead author of the study. “So, we do foresee this as a pretty viable approach to addressing some of those energy needs on the grid.”
The study comes as utilities prepare for an expected boom in energy demand amid the growth of data centers, electrification of homes and transportation, and more frequent extreme weather.
