More than 2,000 fish cages dot these Taiwanese islands, and engineers designed a floating solar machine around the grouper, sea bass, eels, clams, and scallops already living there

A monsoon-prone island nation is deploying floating solar power to maintain aquaculture operations.

Climate change is accelerating, making weather predictions more volatile and storm events more extreme.

For densely populated island nations like Taiwan, this makes reliable backup power supplies more crucial.

Offshore wind turbines will create immense community and engineering challenges, including marine life disruption caused by vibrations.

To ensure electricity needs are met without releasing more carbon emissions, green alternatives are key.

Will the Taiwanese approach help power local fish farming without compromising valuable land?

How achieving a green footprint is not always straightforward

Island nations like Taiwan have surprisingly large carbon footprints per person compared to the world’s average.

Its annual carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 262 million metric tons.

This is attributed to the nation’s significantly high reliance on imported fossil fuels for power generation.

Over 97% of Taiwan’s energy demand relies on fuel imports.

Consequently, this major carbon-intensive dependency has made achieving national interim climate goals more complex.

The goal is to lower emissions compared to 2005 levels, with the ultimate target being net-zero by 2050.

These targets must be achieved by replacing fossil fuel-generated electricity with renewable energy sources across different sectors.

However, rapid large-scale green deployment requires vast land space – something that Taiwan lacks.

This spatial bottleneck creates a direct conflict with national climate goals.

But critical land cannot be sacrificed to replace fossil fuel generation.

To overcome this, innovators are turning to hybrid offshore systems.

Powering through extreme coastal weather

Taiwan has turned to offshore power generation to meet both climate goals and rising clean energy demand.

Offshore wind energy has been essential for regional grid capacity growth, but the nation is testing a new approach.

Expanding offshore green capacity can be challenging, especially for aquaculture.

The island nation has thousands of fish cages dotting its coastal waters.

Fish farming is vital to sustaining the island’s major demand for seafood like scallops, eels, sea bass, clams, and grouper.

Offshore wind turbines will create immense community and engineering challenges, including marine life disruption caused by vibrations.

However, by deploying floating solar panels off Taiwan’s coast, these barriers can be avoided.

The floating structures are more easily deployed alongside existing fish cages.

Furthermore, they also offer property owners a dual income while avoiding territorial displacement.

However, a study had to analyze the ecological impact of floating solar systems hybridized with energy storage on aquaculture.

Adding clean solar generation to Taiwan’s aquaculture

The floating solar hybrid system was tested in Taiwan’s Penghu archipelago.

The storage system uses a 12 V lithium-ion battery, which is combined with a 12 V lead-acid battery. Dual-axis solar tracking was combined with an integrated spray-cooling system.

This ensured the panels remained dust-free and maintained low temperatures.

The island is prone to monsoons, and marine conditions have become more extreme due to accelerating climate change.

Durability is therefore key to ensuring the system remains operational to maintain aquaculture operations.

Field trial performance under different marine conditions

On sunny days, the smart system achieved a 25.17% energy gain.

During windy, overcast conditions, the system yielded an even higher 40.29% production increase.

This means even during severe coastal weather and monsoons, the floating solar hybrid system provided reliable, crucial electricity.

As a result, water pumps, oxygenation systems, and automated fish feeders could continue standard operations without any interruptions.

The trials proved that the floating solar hybrids can successfully maintain Taiwan’s vital aquaculture.

The Penghu pilot site continues to validate the technology, with focus shifting toward scaling commercially.

Streamlining maritime permits will help encourage local fish farmers to adopt these innovative systems.

This will benefit Taiwan’s aquaculture industry while lowering the sector’s carbon footprint.

Ultimately, expanding floating system installations will boost national clean energy generation and protect marine ecosystems.

The trials’ findings can be viewed in Chang, Y. D., Yu, G. R., Chang, C. C., & Chen, J. H. (2025). Sustainable floating PV–storage hybrid system for coastal energy resilience. Electronics, 14(19), 3949.