Here we talk about the project cost of floating PV power stations.
Take Kishwada City photovoltaic power station on the water storage pool as an example, the area of the storage pool is about 20,000 square meters, of which 4,016 solar panels will be laid on 10,000 square meters. The power generation scale is 1.044 megawatts. The investment is about 500 million yen, which is converted into about 0.258 million RMB. The average kilowatt cost is 24,700 yuan. This is three times higher than 8,000 yuan per kilowatt of ground-based photovoltaic power stations of China's current average cost. However, due to the large difference between China and Japan in the price of land and resource use and labor costs, the comparison is only for reference.
The domestic unit cost of high-density polyethylene is 6,500 yuan/ton. The domestic unit cost of a Zn-coated steel bracket used in the ground photovoltaic power station is 3,400 yuan/ton. The price of anti-corrosion polyethylene is relatively high. However, considering that the density of high-density polyethylene is 0.965*103 kg/m3 and that of steel is 7.85*103 kg/m3. It is about 8 times the density of high-density polyethylene. Therefore, if only the volume factor is considered, the weight of polyethylene is 1/8 of the weight of steel. Considering the unit price, the total cost of using polyethylene as a floating body platform is about 1/4 of the cost of the steel mounting structure.
According to the National Land Classification (Trial) implemented on January 1, 2002, land in China. It is divided into three categories, namely, "agricultural land", "construction land" and "unused land". According to the "Provisional Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Tax of Cultivated Land Occupation", the tax provisions on "agricultural land" and "construction land" are made, but the tax on "unused land" is not involved.
There are 4,500 solar panels floating on 12,400 square meters of water, while the 30,000 square meter reservoir and its surrounding rivers are well supplied with water for cooling.
In conclusion, the hardware component of the
floating photovoltaic system is mainly composed of photovoltaic panels (The cost of a ground-based photovoltaic power station is 45%), the junction box (The cost of a ground-based photovoltaic power station is 1%), inverter devices (The cost of a ground-based photovoltaic power station is 6%), transformers (The cost of a ground-based photovoltaic power station is 2.3%), the collecting circuit (The cost of a ground-based photovoltaic power station is 2.5%), polyethylene floating mounting structures, etc.
Under the same circumstances, the price of photovoltaic panels and inverters is fixed. The cost of using polyethylene
floating PV mounting systems is about 1/4 of the cost of steel PV mounting structures (the cost of steel mountings accounts for about 5%-6% of the total cost of the ground photovoltaic power station). The cost of the tax-free water surface is much smaller than that of taxed ground (the land cost accounts for about 3% of the photovoltaic power station on the ground). Therefore, the overall cost of surface PV plants is lower than that of ground PV plants.
At present, there is no precedent of surface photovoltaic power stations in China, coupled with a large number of earthwork of ground power stations. The traffic engineering infrastructure costs are often very high. In short, the author estimates that the cost of floating photovoltaic power stations will be lower than ground photovoltaic power stations.