A floating solar farm of State-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat). (Photo: Bangkok Post)Egat signed a contract with B.Grimm Power Plc, which willserve as an engineering, procurement and construction firm to developphotovoltaic panels worth 842 million baht (28 million USD) on Sirindhorn Damin Ubon Ratchathani, where an Egat hydropower plant is operating.
The floating solar farm is designed to be a hybridsystem, working in tandem with 36MW of hydropower generation to increaseoptimisation capacity.
The facility, which generates power on a water surface of72 hectares, was originally scheduled for operation in December last year, butthe launch was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local media quoted Chatchai Mawong, Egat's director forhydro and renewable energy power plant development, as saying that constructionis now 82 percent complete. Workers began installing the first lot of floatingsolar panels in December 2020 and are speeding up installation.
Under the 2018 National Power Development Plan, Egat iscommitted to building more floating solar farms on all nine of its damsnationwide over the next 20 years, with a combined capacity of 2,725MW. It isalso planning to adopt a modern energy management and energy storage systems,crucial to store electricity produced by solar panels./.
VNA
