AgEcon Australia is leading a groundbreaking five-year, AUD 13M project to explore the potential of floating solar PV on AgEcon Australia is leading a five-year, $13M initiative to explore floating solar on irrigation dams, aiming to cut water losses, generate clean energy, and boost farm income.
The NEESTI project, funded by Australia’s Future Drought Fund and partners, will research economic, technical, and policy solutions for deploying floating PV across cotton, rice, sugarcane, pecans, and ginger farms.
Partners include Macquarie University, University of Southern Queensland, CRDC, and others.
Floating solar could save 296 GL of water annually and help decarbonize agriculture, but cost-effective, scalable solutions are still needed.