The United Arab Emirates has just contracted with a Sweedish firm, CSEM to purchase a floating solar island. This concept has been around awhile, but this is the first sale.
The UAE is going to build a 100 meter wide “island”, producing about one megawatt at a cost of $5 million. This is a concetrating solar power system that will convert seawater to hydrogen, which will then be barged to shore.
This is a pilot project to test feasibility …
This pilot project is being designed mostly to test the feasibility of the solar islands, CSEM says that the islands so far look like they will be cost effective as long as they are deployed in areas with more than 350 days of sunlight that are near the equator. That’s a lot of sunlight, but the area of the coast of the UAE fits the bill. Of course, it’s also necessary for the structures to be able to survive a serious storm either by motoring to shore to avoid it, or being resilient enough to live through it.
Hat tip to EcoGeek.