The U.S. made Hydrelio floating array is composed of 100 crystalline photovoltaic panels and will generate up to 51,000 kWh per year. Hydrelio permits standard solar PV panels to be installed on man-made bodies of water such as industrial reservoirs, storm water retention areas, dams or irrigation ponds. In this project, Hydrelio was installed on a storm water storage reservoir located at OUC’s Gardenia facility.
OUC was the first utility in Central Florida to build a large solar farm and was one of the first in the nation to offer community solar where its customers can invest in an array. The electricity produced with Hydrelio will serve some of OUC’s own electrical usage on-site, or be put into the grid.
As the first floating array of its size in Florida, OUC will use this project as a benchmark in order to promote more efficient ways to deploy floating PV systems designed by Ciel & Terre at other reservoirs throughout OUC’s service area.
A nearly 13-megawatt solar array is under construction now at OUC’s Stanton Energy Center where OUC also utilizes methane gas from the Orange County landfill to offset coal. These new developments in turn will make it easier for the state of Florida as a whole to integrate more solar technology.
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