First Hydropower and Solar Farm Combination Opens In Portugal

The Alto Rabagao Solar Dam has now opened in Portugal. The stunning new creation has a just a 0.22 MW capacity for the solar portion, but the stunning proof of concept has a ton of potential. This reservoir was fitted with 840 floating solar panels that will add to the electricity production.

Intermittency Solved

Of course, the primary disadvantage of solar power is it only provides energy when the sun shines. The solution to that is to store the energy, but that can be expensive. This is where the hydropowered dam comes into play. Not only does it also provide clean electricity, but it's used to store the energy from the solar which fixes the variable nature of solar farms.

This combination can help to reduce the pressure on grid operators to balance sporadic changes in supply from wind and solar.

Improved Space Usage

One the primary complaints against solar is it's high land intensity - but not with this system. The same attack is occasionally lodged against hydro-power, which can flood vast plains after the dams are erected. This practice reduces the land intensity of the energy produced, very significantly if employed on a large enough scale. Floating solar farms only take up land that was no longer usable anyways. As you can see from the picture above, only a tiny little fraction of this reservoir was covered in panels. Others can use up nearly all of the available water space.

This Could Lead To Big Things

If this plan is successful, expect to see more pilot projects pop up. This approach could become increasingly popular as the shift to green energy accelerates and efficient land usage becomes even more important.