Fish are disappearing near floating solar farms.<\/p>\n
Plankton numbers were also declining around the solar arrays.\u00a0 Floating solar farms can help to reduce evaporation in bodies of water. However, researchers have recently found that clean energy was \u201cchoking\u201d the water beneath the solar panels.<\/strong><\/p>\n How are floating solar farms suffocating the water beneath them?<\/p>\n What are the consequences of the world adopting floating solar farms<\/p>\n Floating solar farms, often referred to as floatovoltaics, sit on bodies of water. Like lakes or reservoirs.<\/p>\n The concept seems simple enough and is attractive to those climate-conscious among us.\u00a0<\/strong>But why is underwater life vanishing around them? What has led to this development on floating solar farms?<\/p>\n Unused bodies of water are supposed to serve a purpose: make clean energy possible through floating solar farms.<\/p>\n Initially, it seemed like the perfect clean-energy compromise. However, as more floatovoltaics emerged, researchers noticed something odd. The water beneath them was changing. And the issue was invisible to us on the surface.<\/strong><\/p>\n What is causing this unintended choking of the water?<\/p>\n What exactly did the researchers find beneath the floating solar farms<\/p>\n A team of experts surveyed 26 bodies of water in China\u2019s Yangtze River basin.<\/p>\n They studied everything from water chemistry to bird communities around floating solar farms. Some floatovoltaics use floating panels on the surface.<\/strong> Others opt to use raised structures above the water.<\/p>\n Onshore solar farms are known to attract certain species of birds.<\/a><\/p>\n But floating solar farms are far different. The researchers found that environmental shifts were taking place underneath the panels.<\/strong> Water beneath the panels became remarkably cooler than normal. But cooler water was just the first warning from nature.<\/p>\n The question is why? What is causing this \u201cchoking\u201d of the water?<\/p>\n They also found that dissolved oxygen levels plummeted around floating solar farms.<\/strong> The world of marine life needs oxygen. It supports their growth and survival.<\/p>\n Scientists also found that plankton species were dramatically lower around floating solar farms.<\/p>\n These minuscule organisms are at the bottom of the food chain.<\/strong> Meaning that when their numbers decline, everything above them in the food chain is affected. The fishies that feed on plankton are forced into a diet.<\/p>\n While offshore wind farms have been attracting fish<\/a>, floating solar farms are doing the opposite.<\/p>\n The question to answer becomes, how are these floating solar arrays causing such devastation?<\/strong> The study, \u201cWater-surface photovoltaic systems have affected water physical and chemical properties and biodiversity,\u201d published in Nature<\/a>, has provided the answers.<\/p>\n How are floating solar farms actually choking the water beneath them<\/p>\n The development is contrary to what is taking place on land.<\/p>\n