A trial to install solar panels on lakes, lagoons and farm dams will give landholders who wish to switch to renewables an option without losing land.
Visitors to Farm World at Lardner Park, were given demonstrations on a 50 kilowatt floating solar installation project at the park's reservoir, which is progressively being installed next year.
General manager of Victorian solar installation company Greenwood Tom Johnson said there were many opportunities in Gippsland to use agricultural dams for floating solar panels.
He said that there are multiple benefits in the new on-water solar option, especially as the area in which the water is on is not being used for crops or livestock.
"Those panels are also going to block light hitting the water which reduces algae blooms... so it enhances the local ecology," he said.
"From a solar panel perspective, they also run much more efficiently when they're cooler.
"That'll make the panels run at about, between 8-12 per cent more efficiently, and that effectively means farmers get a return on your money faster."
Mr Johnson said the final stages of the Lardner Park trial will most likely utilise concrete blocks with a stainless steel cable attached tied on to an anchor truss that goes over the top of the floats, which would require engineering expertise compared to a usual rooftop system.
"Somewhere like the Lardner Park lake, where the water is beautiful, clear and on a sunny day, you can see three meters to the bottom like it's glass - that's not too big of a problem," he said.
Mr Johnson said the construction of floating panels to be used on bodies of water on farming properties will need "key considerations" on a case-by-case basis.
"Say if you've got a bank... where it's relatively high off the ground, you might need to do some civil work to excavate it down, and make it a smooth entry for the panels," he said.
"The second challenge that you've got is holding the panel in place once it's in the water, where you've got wind, waves or currents from a river and holding it in place adds a bit of complexity," he said.
There was also an element of danger involved in maintenance, as some installations on wastewater treatment lagoons were risky for staff.
But Mr Johnson also said floating solar systems on agricultural land are becoming more viable on calmer waters.
"If you've got a relatively small dam and a large amount of power you're using, you can cover the whole dam in panels," he said.
"Some ambient light will be getting through, but you're effectively limiting your evaporation, but more importantly it eliminates you needing to do much maintenance work in the water.
"If you're tethering into the bank, or running cables off the floats, putting them into a fence posts or screw piles that are up on the embankment - that's relatively easy and there's not a lot of cost."
Mr Johnson said the system will allow panels to fit on any shape or orientation of water on agricultural land in the future.
"At the moment, they're all produced overseas, but... there's absolutely a local industry opportunity here, and so anyone that's been making Sulu bins or Eskys, could be using that same technology to create these floats," he said.
Floating solar technology has been used and developed for agricultural industries in densely populated areas of Europe and South-East Asia for about 20 years.
He said that the floating panels were relatively new in Australia because of limited land space available, and farmers currently opting for rooftop and other agrivoltaic options.
But there is potential for growth.
"What we're starting to see in Australia is there's particular uses on farms that are coming through where 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been viable," he said.
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