Australia’s water reserves are evaporating. According to Deakin University researchers, the country’s water infrastructure loses almost 370 billion gallons to evaporation each year – about three times the water in Sydney Harbour. But the country has developed a new solution to maintain its water supply, one that has the added benefit of bringing the country closer to its zero-emissions goals: floating solar cells.
Known as floating photovoltaics (FPV), or floatovoltaics, these huge floating installations of solar panels are flourishing in Australia’s dams and water reservoirs. By covering the surface with water reserves, solar panels drastically reduce the rate of evaporation. Importantly, it doesn’t trigger algae blooms that ruin water quality, a common problem with traditional covers that block too much sunlight. Instead, the facilities maintain clean water supplies while adding renewable energy to the nation’s power grids.
Of course, solar panels are not a panacea for Australia’s energy or water concerns. However, their proliferation across the country illustrates how municipalities and industry partners can solve climate problems when given sufficient funding and the necessary will. Additionally, solar projects highlight the interconnectedness of global climate concerns and the ancillary benefits of their solutions. And while floating solar panels may not grab as much headlines as the solar lunar ring project proposed by Japanese company Shimizu, they could prove to be a vital piece of the green energy puzzle.
Floating towards the solar
Floating solar farms are becoming increasingly popular as a green energy measure, as solar floats offer several advantages over traditional solar projects. For one thing, water is a natural coolant, a key benefit given that solar panel efficiency rates decrease as temperatures rise. Solar panels that use bifacial panels, which capture sunlight from both sides of the panel, further increase efficiency by using light reflected from water. As such, floatovoltaics can be more efficient than traditional grids. The water savings achieved through such networks represent much more than just a knock-on effect. Australian utilities have found that installing solar panels on 70% of a reservoir’s surface area can reduce evaporation rates by more than half (via Bloomberg).
This could prove particularly useful in rural agricultural areas, where canals and irrigation canals often lose huge amounts of water. In California, for example, researchers found that the state’s 6,000 miles of aqueducts could conserve about 63 billion gallons of water each year by installing solar panels. The revelations helped spur California’s latest energy experiment, Project Nexus, which aims to install solar panels on the state’s agricultural canal network.
Similar projects are underway in Australia, where the installation of FPV infrastructure in agricultural areas of the country is increasingly becoming a priority. In 2025, for example, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency invested $8.5 million in a five-year initiative to test the viability of the technology in the Australian agricultural context. The project is part of the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund’s Resilient Landscapes program and plans to deploy the floating networks across the country’s agricultural irrigation infrastructure.
A nascent photovoltaic industry
Researchers expect demand for such facilities to increase over the next decade, largely due to voluntary support from the Australian government. One example is the floating solar farm in Warrnambool, Victoria. Completed in 2026, the array is the largest in the country, made up of 1,200 bifacial solar panels. Generating more than 600,000 kWh of electricity per year, the grid’s energy powers the Warrnambool Water Treatment Plant and is expected to reduce the utility’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 650 tonnes per year. Similar projects are emerging across the country. Norwegian photovoltaic company Ocean Sun and Singaporean company Canopy Power, for example, have teamed up to supply 70 meter solar rings to Australian utilities.
Australia is not the only country wanting to deploy this technology. In fact, the number of floating solar farms in the country is relatively small compared to other countries that have long invested in the technology, such as Japan. In 2016, it erected what was then the largest floating power plant made up of 50,000 photovoltaic panels. In 2019, the country’s lakes were home to 73 of the world’s 100 largest floating solar power plants. Since then, China has become a global leader in solar energy, with several of the world’s largest floating projects, including its 320 MW solar farm in Dingzhuang. However, South Korea and India are developing solar projects that will surpass the Dingzhuang project. France, the Netherlands, Indonesia, Portugal, Taiwan, Norway, Italy and the United Kingdom are among the countries investing in floating solar energy. In the United States, NJR Clean Energy Ventures in Milburn, New Jersey, is the largest floatovoltaic project on the continent.