January 2026
IEA PVPS has published a new Task 13 fact sheet, Floating Photovoltaic Power Plants: A Review of Energy Yield, Reliability and Maintenance, providing an overview of floating PV (FPV) systems and summarising key findings from the recently published Task 13 report on FPV.
Floating PV enables the deployment of PV systems on water bodies, helping to address land-use constraints in densely populated regions while expanding opportunities for PV electricity generation. The fact sheet outlines FPV system categories and technologies, global deployment trends, and key design features influencing performance.
A strong focus is placed on energy yield and reliability, highlighting FPV-specific aspects such as thermal behaviour, wave-induced losses, soiling, and system degradation. The publication underlines that FPV performance advantages are highly dependent on system design, environmental conditions, and site characteristics, and cannot be generalised across all installations.
The fact sheet also addresses operation and maintenance considerations, including FPV-specific stressors, early reliability issues observed in existing installations, and key O&M actions required to ensure safe and reliable long-term operation. It concludes by identifying research priorities related to performance modelling, monitoring, maintenance strategies, and environmental impacts of FPV systems.
