Creating robust water management strategies for solar farms
- Use cases
Renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms, cover large areas, and careful consideration of flood risk and surface water solutions is an inherent part of each project.
Santiago Galante, Water Resources Engineer and Team Lead at European Energy, describes his team's role as twofold: in the early screening phases they develop flood risk assessments and water management strategies, and once construction begins, they support the process with recommendations to ensure water is managed responsibly.
For Santiago's team, Scalgo Live has become an essential tool in this work. The projects they are engaged with are from all around the world, and they often use the Global theme to upload project-based elevation data and conduct the analyses.
"We appreciate the simplicity of uploading project-specific data," Santiago explains. "We often have survey data collected specifically for the site and it comes in a variety of file types. And all are supported in Scalgo Live, which makes it very fast. We can easily validate the data and get intuitive visualisations, which makes it easy to explain how water moves across the terrain."
A project in County Galway, Ireland, illustrates how this works in practice. The development, covering around sixty hectares of peatland, agricultural areas, and forest, came to European Energy with a flood risk assessment already prepared by a local consultant.
"We used Scalgo Live to evaluate these plans. By uploading all the data from the consultant, we were able to check how the suggested measures matched the actual topography."
Santiago Galante, European Energy
The project in Galway covered several different parcels of land. These locations, together with local elevation data, were uploaded to Scalgo Live to get an overview of the site.
Their conclusion was that a nature-based drainage approach should be used to manage surface water, with swales planned in the lower parts of the site to detain and collect runoff.
Santiago continues: "We used Scalgo Live to evaluate these plans. By uploading all the data from the consultant, we were able to check how the suggested measures matched the actual topography."
Terrain profiles made it possible to confirm that the longitudinal slopes of the swales followed the natural terrain, ensuring the designs would function as intended. In addition, the designs could be adjusted by editing cross-sections.
"We can easily validate the data and get intuitive visualisations, which makes it easy to explain how water moves across the terrain."
Santiago Galante, European Energy
Left: An example of a swale being constructed on a solar farm. Right: The profile tool helps validate the planned surface water measures.
While solar fields are generally not intended to generate excess runoff, Santiago notes that during construction—when vegetation is cleared and the ground is disturbed—temporary impacts occur. In this context, Santiago could ensure that planned mitigation measures were not only correctly placed but also technically sound.
On the other side of the world, in Victoria, Australia, Santiago's team worked on a much larger solar project of 172 hectares. Australia is known for its stringent flood-related regulations, and thorough hydrological studies were required.
A solar farm in Australia.
"We could upload the topography of the site and then we used the Canvas function in Scalgo Live to visualise the locations of planned solar panels and compare these with areas prone to water accumulation," Santiago describes the process.
"We appreciate the simplicity of uploading project-specific data."
Santiago Galante, European Energy
Once the elevation data was uploaded, the solar panel locations were visualised in a Canvas and compared with water accumulation on the terrain.
In addition, data extracted from Scalgo Live was used in other software, creating a solid foundation for suggesting mitigation actions such as swales and revegetation.
From Ireland’s peatlands to Australia’s landscapes, Scalgo Live supports the water resources team at European Energy in preparing flood-safe renewable energy projects—projects that contribute to the wider transition to a more sustainable future.
See the full webinar
For more inspiration on how to use the global theme in Scalgo Live, watch the webinar “Shaping the world - Global surface water projects”.
