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