Local solar panel technology to be tested in Malta: floating solar panels could also be used in mining.

• Author: Migneault, Jonathan

Early next year, Sudbury-developed clean energy technology - with strong potential for the mining sector - is expected to be tested off the coast of Malta, a small European island nation in the Mediterranean Sea.

Kim Trapani, a Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO) researcher who is originally from Malta, worked on light flexible solar panels that can float on any body of water.

Malta is one of the world's smallest countries. Its entire landmass is 316 square-kilometres, about one tenth the size of Greater Sudbury.

With a population of around 450,000 people, Malta does not have a lot of room for infrastructure to produce energy, but must meet strict European Union standards to increase its green energy production.

Most of the country's energy production comes from oil - and less than one per cent is from renewable sources. By 2020 Malta will need 10 per cent of its energy to be from green sources to meet its European Union requirements.

MIRARCO's floating solar panels proved to be a perfect solution for Tra-pani's homeland.

The not-for-profit corporation, affiliated with Laurentian University, has partnered with the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology to develop -the offshore passive photovoltaic project (OPPV).

By next March, the project plans to install a floating array of solar panels, measuring about 20 metres by 20 metres, which will have a peak output of eight kilowatts.

"In Sudbury that would be enough for three typical homes," Trapani said.

Trapani and other researchers will observe the solar panel array for one year. The proof of concept could lead to larger scale energy production projects using the same technology.

The biggest challenge in developing the flimsy solar panels was finding the right hydrophobic - or water-repelling materials to protect the solar cells.

Because the panels are flexible, Trapani said, they will be well-suited for the changing water surface about one kilometre off the coast of Malta.

The panels - which will be...