The number estimated by World Wide Fund for Nature highlights the problem of loss and lack of freshwater.
The increase of earth temperature by 1◦ C since the industrial revolution and the increase of residential water consumption by 200% and the industrial water consumption by 130% since 1955 places further pressure on our fresh water resources.
A further increase of 1◦ C will lead to a loss of 17% of our freshwater resources due to evaporation and to 50 cm raise of seawater level. These numbers calls for an urgent reduction of CO2 emissions, and an action to protect our freshwater reservoirs.
The transition to renewable energy sources is already in process, but one of our responsibilities as technology developers and solution providers is to accelerate this transition by providing innovative hybrid solutions.
Floating Solar is one of these solutions. By placing solar panels on the surfaces of water reservoirs, it does not only increase the production the panels by cooling effect up to 15% but also reduces water evaporation up to 60%
Although the cost of floating solar is a still relatively higher than ground-mounted solar plants, the Levelized Cost of Electricity - LCOE of floating solar is similar to that of a ground mounted solar plant due to the increase in energy production.
The installed capacity of floating solar has witnessed a dramatic increase in the last few years from a 10 MW cumulative installed capacity in 2014 to 1097 MW by the end of 2018.
This exponential increase is expected to continue with floating solar tenders announced each day and more than 1 GW open tenders up till now.
You can find the reference to all the numbers and graphs used in the article in the following links.