Potential seen in floating solar for wine, ag

Far Niente Winery in the Napa Valley pioneered the use of a floating solar array in 2008 by installing almost 1,000 panels on a 1.3 acre in Martin Stelling Vineyard. It produces 400 kilowatts at peak output. Similar applications of this innovative concept will be developed at six Sonoma County Water Agency holding ponds, making this the second-largest floating solar project in the world. (Far Niente Winery)

Sonoma County clean energy and water officials have set up talks with vineyard, farm, dairy and other landowners in Sonoma Valley and around Healdsburg about using their irrigation ponds for what is said to be the largest floating solar-electricity project in the U.S. and the second-largest in the world.

Sonoma Clean Power and Sonoma County Water Agency plan to hold additional information sessions throughout the county over the next three months to assess landowner interest in adopting a solar-over-water option. This comes after Sonoma Clean Power signed an agreement with San Francisco-based Pristine Sun in late February to install a 12.5-megawatt solar farm on pontoon docks at six holding ponds operated by the water agency in northwest Santa Rosa and Sonoma Valley. The power agency had reviewed bids from four solar providers.

The sunset of rooftop solar is not over the horizon, but the dawn of a new application for photovoltaic panels installed as floating arrays is an emerging trend in the industry. Some have already been placed above vineyard irrigation and frost prevention ponds as well as on fully treated wastewater reservoirs. The largest floating solar array in the world is a 13.4-megawatt installation by Kyocera TCL Solar on Yamakura Dam reservoir near Tokyo.

We took extra care to protect customers who will become involved in these floating solar installations with the risks being borne by the developer, said Geof Syphers, CEO of Sonoma Clean Power.

The risks mainly are over project location, he said. Since the project is not typical and is over water, there are potentially increased risks associated with construction and maintenance. As a result, the power agency took special care to ensure the developer carries all those risks.

About 25 percent of all vineyards in the county have holding ponds. One hundred of these vineyards have ponds that may be suitable for floating solar arrays, and 20 to 40 are near power transmission lines. A limiting factor for site selection is a pond within about a quarter-mile of a power-transmission line to save the cost of additional poles to reach the grid.

He said the power agency provides more solar power per capita than anywhere else in the country.

Closeup of the floating array (Far Niente Winery)

Customers have rates competitive with those of PG&E today with savings of from 6 percent to 9 percent on the entire monthly bill, Syphers said. Low-income customers, who qualify for a subsidy, can save as much as 10 percent to 14 percent. In the first year of operations, SCP customers saved $6 million over what they would have paid to PG&E.

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Potential seen in floating solar for wine, ag