Department Seminar of Yosef Perlmutter - Assessing the Effect of Floating Photovoltaic Panels on Secondary Effluents’ Quality – Case Study in Yesodot Reservoir, Israel

Wednesday 10.04.2024 at 14:00

Wolfson Building of Mechanical Engineering, Room 206

Assessing the Effect of Floating Photovoltaic Panels on Secondary

Effluents’ Quality – Case Study in Yesodot Reservoir, Israel

The Iby and Alder Fleischman Faculty of Engineering

Environmental Engineering program

Yosef Perlmutter

Advisor: Prof. Hadas Mamane

Israel is a leading country in wastewater treatment, where 96% of the wastewater was treated in 2020, from which more than 80% were used for irrigation. The Israeli standards for irrigation are divided into restricted and non-restricted, based on the effluents’ quality. The Israeli Ministry of Health regulated that in reservoirs with restricted irrigation effluents’ quality, only 20% of the reservoir can be covered with floating photovoltaic panels. In this study, two data loggers were submerged at 1-1.5m depth in Yesodot Reservoir, which has a floating photovoltaic panels array installed. This study’s objective is to establish an experimental setup for determining the impact of floating photovoltaic panels on a secondary effluents’ reservoir, emphasizing the end of the irrigational season. The specific objectives are to (1) determine the temporal differences in dissolved oxygen and temperature between two locations within the Yesodot Reservoir, one beneath the photovoltaic panels’ array, and the other near the reservoir’s outlet; (2) understand whether the panels cause anaerobic or low dissolved oxygen conditions and/or significant local temperature differences, and (3) conduct comparative analysis between the locations during the end of the irrigation season, while the reservoir reaches its minimal volume and surface area, correlating to the poorest effluent quality.