MARIN and SolarDuck push boundaries with floating solar array tests

In a groundbreaking collaboration, MARIN and the offshore solar pioneer SolarDuck have successfully completed high-precision stationkeeping tests of a 54-platform floating solar array, demonstrating the survivability in high sea states.

This project has been made possible in part through funding from the Top Sector Energy subsidy programme of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy.

This collaboration not only showcases the technical feasibility of large-scale floating solar systems but also contributes valuable data to the global energy transition. With offshore solar gaining traction as a complementary solution to wind and land-based solar, MARIN and SolarDuck’s work paves the way for scalable, resilient, and sustainable energy infrastructure.

Martijn Rodenburg, Mechanical Engineer at SolarDuck, highlighted one of the most promising findings: "Across all tests, we’ve observed that wind has a notable damping effect. As wind passes across the plant, platform motion visibly decreases. It’s great to see our expectations confirmed."

The campaign also included decay testing of individual platforms, offering insights into potential single-unit deployments for powering remote locations.

Tests on multi-platform arrays at scale

This advanced tracking system enabled researchers to analyse critical factors such as wave shielding effects and inter-platform forces—key considerations for the structural integrity and performance of floating solar farms in offshore environments. The new optical motion tracking system proved to be sufficiently accurate to derive the inter-platform compression from the relative motions. In all tests, the compression stayed within the designed limits.

The tests, conducted in MARIN’s Offshore Basin, involved a 1:20 scale model of interconnected triangular platforms arranged in a HEX-3 configuration. This setup represents a real-world solar capacity of approximately 6 MWp. The project builds on earlier phases, which began with a single platform test and expanded to six platforms in a HEX-1 layout before reaching the current 54-platform array.

William Otto, Senior Project Manager Offshore, explained the need for innovation in measurement techniques: "When you start testing so many platforms at the same time, you can’t rely on your old measurement techniques. That’s why we developed a new optical system that tracks the motion of each platform individually using ceiling-mounted cameras and optical markers. With our unique test setup, we can track the motions of up to 100 platforms in a measurement area of 15m x 15m, being one of the first able to accommodate tests on multi-platform arrays at this scale."