India, Sept. 29 -- Solar panels were placed on part of Bomhofsplas, a deep former sand-extraction lake close to Zwolle in the Netherlands, in 2020. The project consists of 72,000 solar panels with a generation capacity of 27.4 MWp, covering 18.25 hectares, or roughly 30% of the lake's surface area. Its size gave researchers an opportunity to examine conditions beneath a large floating solar installation while it was in operation.

Floating solar can generate electricity without requiring additional land, but installing panels on a lake also changes the surface of the water. The panels can affect how much sunlight reaches the water below and create a different physical environment underneath the array. At Bomhofsplas, researchers set out t...