SolarDuck: Pioneering Offshore Floating Solar Power

Founded in 2018, SolarDuck B.V. is a pioneering offshore floating solar power company with a strong maritime heritage, spanning across the Netherlands and Norway. As a spin-off from the largest shipyard in the Netherlands, Damen Shipyards, SolarDuck has leveraged its expertise to bring its vision of “electrifying the world with offshore floating solar power” to fruition. The company was in the news recently for a project it won in Japan to deliver offshore power from solar.

From islands in the Sunbelt to hybrid offshore parks in the North Sea, including the Netherlands, SolarDuck’s state-of-the-art technology offers an attractive value proposition in a wide range of use cases. Through its unwavering commitment to innovation and sustainability, SolarDuck is helping to pave the way for a brighter, cleaner future for all.

Founders

SolarDuck B.V. was founded by a team of experts in the maritime and offshore industries – Albert van der Hem, Allard van Hoeken, and Peter Paul van Voorst tot Voorst.

As CEO and co-founder of SolarDuck, Albert van der Hem draws upon over three decades of experience, including as the former Managing Director of Damen Shipyards Singapore and Director of Damen Shipyards Group. Allard van Hoeken, the CTO and co-founder, has over 20 years of industry experience and was the founder and CEO of Bluewater Energy Services. Peter Paul van Voorst tot Voorst, the COO and co-founder, also has over 20 years of experience in project management and technology development, including a stint as Director of Business Development at Tocardo, a Dutch tidal energy company.

The combined expertise of these three founders has enabled SolarDuck to drive its mission of “electrifying the world with offshore floating solar power” and offer cutting-edge technology solutions to meet the world’s growing energy demands.

Funding

SolarDuck has successfully raised a total of €4.2 million in funding over the course of two rounds. The latest funding was secured on April 27, 2022, through a Seed round. The company is backed by two investors, namely Link Venture Capital and Katapult, who are the most recent contributors to the funding.

Projects

SolarDuck made headlines in 2021 when it launched its first demonstrator project, showcasing its innovative floating structure technology for solar power generation at offshore sites, such as estuaries, natural harbours, and near-shore locations. The project involved the installation of a 64 kW system on a site located in the Waal (Rhine) River, close to IJzendoorn, Gelderland, in the Netherlands.

Recently, SolarDuck announced a new partnership with Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN), and Deltares to develop a pilot project in the North Sea. The Dutch government has allocated €7.8 million in funding for this initiative, which aims to further advance the development of offshore floating solar power. The collaboration is expected to leverage the collective expertise and resources of each partner to drive innovation in the offshore renewable energy sector and help to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future.

SolarDuck is also building what it claims to be the world´s largest Offshore Floating Solar power plant at HKW VII (Netherlands) in partnership with RWE. SolarDuck will build a 5MW demonstrator and the project is expected to become operational by 2026.

Building Japan’s First Offshore Floating Solar

SolarDuck has been awarded a contract to develop Japan’s first offshore floating solar power generation and automated sailing boat technology demonstrator together with local partners, Tokyu Land Corporation and Everblue Technologies. The three companies aim to realize local production for local consumption of energy in the Tokyo Bay Area in the future through the practical application of Japan’s first “offshore floating photovoltaic power generation system”. The interesting part here is in how the energy generated is being transferred to shore. A scaled-down version of Everblue Technologies HYDROLOOP concept, in which clean energy produced offshore is transported by unmanned, carbon-neutral powered water drones. In this case, an automated sailing boat  loaded with batteries will make trips to the offshore plant to transfer the energy to onshore public events for consumption.

Japan’s first offshore floating solar generation system is expected to provide power for electric-driven boats, while also demonstrating the effectiveness of battery storage for marine transportation. The project is part of Tokyo’s plan to create a sustainable city that looks 50 to 100 years into the future by implementing cutting-edge technologies related to renewable energy, next-generation mobility, and environmental improvement and resource recycling in the central breakwater area.