Assessment of the evaporation rate in reservoir partially covered by floating photovoltaic plants

The present study aims to model and analyze the interaction between floating PV systems (FPVs) and the evaporative phenomenon in partially covered reservoirs. The literature provides several numerical models for evaluating the evaporation rate (ER) in free water basins. The input data used in such models are the weather variables (e.g. global irradiance, ambient temperature, wind speed). Otherwise, less investigated is the evaluation of the (ER) in water basin covered by FPV plants. In this study a numerical model is implemented in such a way to quantify the level of daily evaporation considering the different features of the floating PV array (e.g. floating structures, geometry of the deployment of the PV modules) that determine a diverse impact on the water evaporation. The interaction of the floating PV array on the energy balance of the covered part of the basin is taken into account. The results of this study show a decrease of the evaporation rate as function of the features of the FPV plant installed. For a basin with 10.0% of its surface covered with a FPV plant the reduction of the water evaporated ranges from 7.0 to 19.0%.