The use of floating solar power plants in the Asia Pacific region is estimated to increase the electricity output for the area by around 900 per cent.
A recent report from the Institue for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has suggested that the countries in the Asia Pacific region are leading the way in using floating solar plants.
The report states that the floating solar plants have proven that they can withstand strong winds, large waves and typhoons leading to manufactures now testing the prjects on a larger scale.
The first floating solar power plant was installed in Japan thirteen years ago however China currently leads the way with the largest installed floating solar capacity.
At the end of 2018, China and Japan had a combined floating solar power installed capacity of 1.3 gigawatts where as Vietnam currently has 47 megawatts of total installed capacity.
The report from the Institue for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis also added that the largest power generation firm in India, the National Thermal Power Corporation, has a 200 megawatt cpacity floating solar power project that is currently under development across four different locations.
A group of countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have signed contracts for new prjects which includes 145 megawatts in Indonesia, 54 megawatts in Singapore, 330 megawatts in Vietnam, 80 megawatts in Thailand, 150 megawatts in Malaysia and 145 megawatts in Indonesia.
Southeast Asia also benefits from competitively priced electrcity generation due to the technology specific auctions of power.
The finance Analyst from the Institue for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Sara Jane Ahmed stated that their research shows that ASEAN countries are building more floating solar power plants over a variety of bodies of water ranging from dams to the sea.
It was also found that solar farms are most efficiently used when they are installed close to hydropower facilities as they are able to connect to already existing.