Abstract Summary
The increased availability of solar energy potential, especially in southern latitudes as in the Mediterranean Sea, constitutes a strong motivation for the design and development of float-ing offshore solar energy platforms suitable for deployment and operation in the sea envi-ronment; see, e.g. Ref.[1]. In this work a novel Boundary Element Method [2] is used for the hydrodynamic analysis of floating twin-hull structures carrying photovoltaic panels on the deck. The method supports the investigation of wave responses and their effects on solar power performance in variable bathymetry regions. A boundary integral formulation, in-volving simple singularities, is applied in the vicinity of the floating body for the representation of the near field, in conjunction with suitable models for the treatment of conditions at infinity of the considered diffraction/radiation problems in variable bathymetry regions. With the aid of systematic comparisons, the effects of the bottom slope and curvature on the hydrodynamic characteristics (hydrodynamic coefficients and responses) of the floating bodies are shown and discussed. Finally, the effects of waves on the floating PV performance are presented, indicating significant variations of the performance index depending on the sea state. For the demonstration of the studied system preliminary results from study concerning the performance of the considered modules(s) in selected areas are discussed. REFERENCES: [1] Diendorfer C., Haider M., Lauermann M., 2014, Performance analysis of offshore so-lar power plants. Energy Procedia 49: 2462–2471 [2] Magkouris A., Belibassakis K, Rusu E, 2021, Hydrodynamic Analysis of Twin-Hull Structures Supporting Floating PV Systems in Offshore and Coastal Regions, Energies 14 (18), 5979.
