EGEB: Thailand builds a huge floating hydro-solar farm

[thackney]

EGEB: Thailand builds a huge floating hydro-solar farm
https://electrek.co/2021/04/21/egeb-thailand-builds-a-huge-floating-hydro-solar-farm/

Thailand is building one of the world’s largest floating hydro-solar farms in Ubon Ratchathani, a province in the country’s northeastern Isan region, on the border with Laos and Cambodia.

The 300-acre, 144,000-solar-panel hybrid project is at Sirindhorn Dam, on a 111-square-mile (288-square-kilometer) reservoir. The state-run Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT) will use an Energy Management System to switch between solar and hydropower.

Project chief Chanin Saleechan told Reuters:

We are currently at 90% completion. The project area is divided into seven platforms of floating solar cell panels. We’ve already installed five-and-a-half platforms. There are still one-and-a-half platforms to work on, which we expect to complete by the end of April. And we think we will be ready to distribute electricity with this by the end of June 2021.

[W]e utilize everything we have here to make the best use of each component. We have space on the water surface, and we have a hydro power station with a high voltage power transmission system. And with that combination, it will make the cost of power generation per unit lower.”

EGAT says the project should be able to generate 45 megawatts of power. Thailand’s goal is to use 35% clean energy by 2037....

[thackney]

An Energy Management System (EMS) will be used to switch between solar and hydropower, depending on which has more strength to generate electricity to allow for continuous power production.

https://news.yahoo.com/thailand-builds-massive-floating-hydro-122732246.html

Sounds like they are utilizing existing infrastructure from dam to minimize cost tying into the grid.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This is a likable formula for solar as it has instant storage, as long as plenty of sun exists and the underlying economics are favorable.

[thackney]

This is a likable formula for solar as it has instant storage, as long as plenty of sun exists and the underlying economics are favorable.

If you mean pumped storage, I do not find that dam is set up for it.

https://www.egat.co.th/en/information/power-plants-and-dams?view=article&id=57

[Fishrrman]

What happens when a typhoon comes along...?

[DB]

What happens when a typhoon comes along...?

Their bills go up to cover the cost of a new solar farm...

[IsailedawayfromFR]

If you mean pumped storage, I do not find that dam is set up for it.

https://www.egat.co.th/en/information/power-plants-and-dams?view=article&id=57

Seems it would not be an extraordinarily difficult measure to incorporate, though.

They are also incorporating an excellent way to fry ducks and geese that venture over the lake as well......

[thackney]

What happens when a typhoon comes along...?

This is not near the coast.  It is ~466 feet above sea level.

https://goo.gl/maps/rGxnf4axHiWeyMrNA

[thackney]

They are also incorporating an excellent way to fry ducks and geese that venture over the lake as well......

This is photovoltaic, not a reflected thermal system like Ivanpah.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This is photovoltaic, not a reflected thermal system like Ivanpah.

Yep, not incineration as much as smashing into the solar arrays as birds believe it to be solid ground, as other photoelectric arrays demonstrate.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solar-farms-threaten-birds/

[thackney]

Yep, not incineration as much as smashing into the solar arrays as birds believe it to be solid ground, as other photoelectric arrays demonstrate.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solar-farms-threaten-birds/

Birds fly into nearly everything.  Up to a billion a year dead in the US from flying into buildings.

Bird–building collisions in the United States: Estimates of annual mortality and species vulnerability
http://nas-national-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/loss_et_al_bird-building_collisons_condor_2014.pdf

[conservativevoter]

The liquid source for this 'farm' comes from the families growing the fishery products that they are determined to sell to developed countries.  I won't buy their damned products. 

[Cyber Liberty]

Birds fly into nearly everything.  Up to a billion a year dead in the US from flying into buildings.

Bird–building collisions in the United States: Estimates of annual mortality and species vulnerability
http://nas-national-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/loss_et_al_bird-building_collisons_condor_2014.pdf

When it comes to killing birds, I think the wind farms are King.  They've been devastating, especially for birds of prey.  This Thai project seems relatively benign.