Sun, water and ice: Lithuania tests floating solar power

Solar panels at a power plant in southeastern France, in 2019. Most of the 600 GW of installed solar power worldwide is on land. — AFP

OSLO: In a renewable energy experiment combining sun, water and ice, a Lithuanian power firm aims to install floating solar panels on a lake at a hydroelectric plant this year as part of a small but booming global market for "floatovoltaics”.

Solar panels mounted on pontoons, on lakes or at sea have been fitted in recent years in places ranging from a California vineyard to polluted industrial ponds at disused coal mines in China.