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The majority of the Ethiopian population lives in rural areas and uses wood for domestic energy consumption. Using wood and fuel for domestic uses accounts for deforestation and health problems, which is also dangerous for the environment. The Ethiopian government has been planning to generate power from available renewable resources around the community. Therefore, determining the water surface potential of energy harvesting with floating solar photovoltaic system by using geographic information system is used to support decision-makers to use high potential areas. To identify useable areas for floating solar photovoltaic, factors that affect the usability were identified and weighted by using Analytical Hierarchy Processes. Thus, weighted values and reclassified values were multiplied to do the final usability map of floating solar photovoltaic with ArcGIS software. Due to the improper location of floating solar photovoltaic, efficiency is dropped. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the most usable surface of water bodies in Amhara regional, state irrigation dams for generating electrical power. The usability of the water surface for floating solar photovoltaic power plant was 63.83%, 61.09%, and 57.20% of Angereb, Rib, and Koga irrigation dams, respectively. The majority of the usable areas were found in the middle of the water surface. Nature water surface is a key factor in generating solar energy; it affects the floating solar photovoltaic and irradiance coming to the solar photovoltaic panel surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar PV is possible alternative renewable energy resources, particularly for rural electrification. Its high demand growth may cause for land scarcity, and this will be a serious problem in countries like Ethiopia where agriculture is main source of economy and population large size. In addition to land scarcity, low efficiency of photovoltaic land installation is another problem. Hence, photovoltaic performance is relying on weather conditions, operation parameters like temperature and wind speed. Water bodies can be alternatives to install photovoltaic to the scarcest land and decrease impact of temperature on photovoltaic. To reduce the affirmation problems floating system is an alternative technology. Floating photovoltaic plants are an emerging form of PV system that floats on water bodies. Land installation of photovoltaic increases risk of PV module efficiency drops land scarcity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to design floating system for Debre Mariam Island to increases efficiency of solar cell and save land. To tackle mentioned problems floating photovoltaic installation is method used. Floating photovoltaic provides efficient energy supply and new strategy to save land. Thus, floating photovoltaic system is modeled so as to satisfy daily energy load demand of Debre Mariam Island community electric loads. The temperature and wind speed are major contributory factors for panel efficiency drops and low power output in land photovoltaic installations. 294.8 kW is the generated power output of solar floating system whereas 289.9 kW is the generated power output of land photovoltaic installation. Thus, floating PV installation increases the generated power output by 4.9 kW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]