Review and Comparative Study of Methodologies for Hydrodynamic Analysis of Nearshore Floating Solar Farms

Abstract

The ocean surface offers enormous potential for generating renewable energy, but cost-effective, reliable, and robust systems are needed. Developing floating solar farms (FSF) can contribute to the process of reducing carbon emissions. However, the rational methodology for hydrodynamic analysis of floating solar farms is still not well established. This paper aims to identify a suitable methodology for the analysis of floating solar farms for mild and moderate environments in nearshore, and eventually deeper offshore deployments. This paper reviews the various type of FSFs developed in recent years and the methodologies applied to evaluate their hydrodynamic performance. Following that, the paper focuses on assessing three potential methodologies for the evaluation of the hydrodynamic performance of articulated FSFs in a nearshore region. The three methods are the two-step approach with multi-body radiation and diffraction analysis, hydroelastic/generalized mode method, and empirical approach utilizing Morison's equation. To evaluate these methods, a simplified small-scale FSF which is comprised of 16 articulated box-type modules, is established. A soft mooring system is introduced to constraint the horizontal motion of the farm. The small-scale farm is representative of a typical large FSF in the nearshore region of Singapore. Numerical models of the farm based on the three methods are established separately, and the dynamic responses of the farm are simulated and analyzed. The motion response operators of the modules of the FSF covering the typical wave periods in nearshore conditions are obtained, and the results from the three methods are evaluated in terms of their efficiency and accuracy. It is found that the three methods show consistent results of the dynamic responses of the solar farm in long waves. However, some discrepancies are present in short waves, mainly due to the increasing importance of hydrodynamic interactions which are neglected in one of these methods. The results could be a useful reference for the design and hydrodynamic analysis of similar FSFs.