Inland floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems are exposed to wave-induced motion and forces, which drive fatigue loading on the structure and mooring and reduce energy yield through suboptimal module orientation. Floating wave barriers can mitigate these effects, but conventional barriers provide no ecological or aesthetic value. Floating ecosystems, pontoons supporting vegetation above and below the waterline, are designed to improve water quality and provide habitat, but whether they can also serve as wave barriers has not previously been quantified.

This thesis addresses how the integration of floating ecosystems influences wave–structure interaction, structural response, and energy yield of FPV systems in inland water bodies. Three wave-barrier representations are modelled using a monolithic finite-element fluid-structure interaction framework: a freshly placed floating ecosystem as a thin elastic beam, a mature ecosystem with an added porous root zone, and a rigid, hollow HDPE pipe as a reference barrier. All cases are applied to wave conditions derived for the Willemspolder, a lake adjacent to the River Waal in the Netherlands.

Results show that both the unmoored elastic beam and the unmoored pipe transmit nearly all incident wave energy at the peak frequency, with spectrally weighted load reductions below 13%. A pipe moored with stiffness precisely tuned to the peak frequency achieves near-complete wave reflection through resonant scattering, extending FPV fatigue life by a factor of 10 or more. The mature root zone introduces broadband porous dissipation as an additional attenuation mechanism, independent of mooring. The impact of wave-induced energy yield losses is small across all configurations; structural fatigue is the dominant design driver rather than energy yield. Floating ecosystems offer ecological and aesthetic value that conventional pipe barriers cannot, making a hybrid configuration a promising direction for future development.
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