Compressed air energy storage integrated with floating photovoltaic plant

•Floating photovoltaic (PV) system is new design solution for PV plants.•To transform PV into a programmable energy source a storage system is required.•CAES can be coupled in a costeffective way with the floating structure.•The presence of water can be used to develop an isothermal CAES.•A mixed air/water CAES that uses a water storage reservoir is presented.

Floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems are an emerging technology suitable for large plants, especially, on fresh water basins. We suggest integrating a CAES system to FPV using the pipes, necessary for the buoyancy of the modular raft structure, as a compressed air reservoir. The huge basin thermal inertia allows for an isothermal compression- expansion cycle, which promises high storage efficiency.