World’s Largest Floating Solar Hybrid Power Plant Will Begin Operating in Thailand in October

[snoop1130]

 

BANGKOK (NNT) - The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) reports that the largest floating hybrid solar power plant in the world, on Sirindhorn Reservoir in Ubon Ratchathani province, with a capacity of 45 megawatts, will start operating from October this year.

 

EGAT governor Boonyanit Wongrukmit said the plant will help generate electricity from a renewable energy source for a longer time.

 

He said the plant generates electricity from solar cells during the day and from the hydroelectric power plant at night, using batteries which store the electricity generated during the day. It is also the best use of the existing resources at the dam, such as power transmission lines and high-voltage power stations, and reduces the cost of electricity.

 

According to the governor, EGAT is still waiting for the Ministry of Energy to approve the expansion of floating photovoltaic power generation, from the current power development plan of 2,725 megawatts to 5,000 megawatts, to meet the country’s clean energy needs.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2021-08-23

 

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[KannikaP]

I wonder what the solar:hydro ratio is.

45 mega watts is less than 1% of the 5000 needed.

 

[internationalism]

thailand has some 30% over capacity, which is very large in comparison to the other countries.

now, at times of crisis, demand is falling.

this solar plant construction have started before crisis, but developing it further is pointless.

[Nojohndoe]

15 minutes ago, internationalism said:

thailand has some 30% over capacity, which is very large in comparison to the other countries.

now, at times of crisis, demand is falling.

this solar plant construction have started before crisis, but developing it further is pointless.

Huh? If what you claim is correct "now" due to  current crisis, alternative  energy production that  averts the annual importation cost of fossil fuel energy directly or indirectly .

In 2020 Thailand imported  electrical energy from Laos at 12% percent of consumption. To throw away?

 

[gk10012001]

as an engineer that majored in energy, thermodynamics, heat transfer etc.  back in the late 70s when energy crisis was in the news, I follow energy developments and am aware of many alternative attempts.  The USA Southwest desert states have millions of square miles of bright sunshine where it would seem that gigantic solar cell fields could be installed, not to mention several Solar furnace plants.  I have toured the facility in the Mojave and the one in New Mexico also.   The economics just don't favor such things yet.  And the intensity i.e. power that US cities use as well as the need for power at night keeps alternative things low on the totem pole.  But if big changes were made to the power loading and the energy usage times, I think solar electric has great potential for non industrial uses such as routine lighting, light appliance usage, etc, for millions of homes. 

[gk10012001]

14 minutes ago, Nojohndoe said:

Huh? If what you claim is correct "now" due to  current crisis, alternative  energy production that  averts the annual importation cost of fossil fuel energy directly or indirectly .

In 2020 Thailand imported  electrical energy from Laos at 12% percent of consumption. To throw away?

 

maybe Thailand is laundering money!

[Nojohndoe]

3 minutes ago, gk10012001 said:

maybe Thailand is laundering money!

Thats an interesting concept. I wonder where they could have picked that up from?

[bendejo]

4 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

maybe Thailand is laundering money!

Oh no, definitely not.  See?

 

 

555

 

 

[RubbaJohnny]

Could be mounted on submarines incapable of deep diving, sub optimal but a potential conning hub.

[Damrongsak]

Yeah, plug those panels into an 80 Megawatt furnace and see how they perform. 

 

 

 

 

[siamike]

Whether its a large installation like this one or just a few solar panels on a single roof, turning sunlight into usable electricity is a step in the right direction.  Every watt produced by solar electric is a watt that wont need to be made by burning fossil fuels and putting more CO2 into the atmosphere.   

[Scott Tracy]

I am in favour of renewable energy, as such. We have...when I say we, I mean the wife, has nearly 2 rai of land out the back of the house currently not in use, as rice farming is a loss making exercise. I would love to plant a field of of panels and a battery house for storage. Problem is, cost benefit exercise shows it is beyond my means. No one in the village is able to help fund such a project either, so the land remains unused. But the wife refuses to part with it. Same as the 3 rai nearer the local town. Can't sell this as it has papers on it. No one wants rice land with papers. Nothing generates an income. Land is derelict, deserted. What is the point?

[Mr Meeseeks]

Mass solar power is a non-starter in Thailand until tariffs on the import of the equipment are relaxed; far too expensive initially to be viable.

 

Projects as mentioned in the OP are merely more boondoggles to ensure golfing can continue at the weekends for the unqualified few that will end up in charge of it.

[Mr Meeseeks]

10 hours ago, Nojohndoe said:

Thats an interesting concept. I wonder where they could have picked that up from?

Maybe it has been part of their culture for 100's of years?

[George Aylesham]

One useful side effect should be a reduction in evaporation of much needed water from the reservoirs.

[VocalNeal]

13 hours ago, internationalism said:

thailand has some 30% over capacity, which is very large in comparison to the other countries.

now, at times of crisis, demand is falling.

this solar plant construction have started before crisis, but developing it further is pointless.

Then we should all have plug in cars?

[chilly07]

Well done Thailand! Keep up the good work!

[internationalism]

sorry, my bad, overcapacity rose from 30 to 40% and will be rising for many years:

"With the lower than expected demand growth in recent years (less than 3% annual growth), Thailand’s power sector is facing the issue of generation overcapacity and a high reserve margin, which has been in the range of 40%. This situation is expected to become more prominent in the coming years due to the impact of Covid-19."

They should drop energy prices down, even half, to stimulate economy, thus export, even cryptocurrency mining

https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-market-report-december-2020/2020-regional-focus-southeast-asia

Edited August 24, 2021 by internationalism

[Tropposurfer]

14 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

as an engineer that majored in energy, thermodynamics, heat transfer etc.  back in the late 70s when energy crisis was in the news, I follow energy developments and am aware of many alternative attempts.  The USA Southwest desert states have millions of square miles of bright sunshine where it would seem that gigantic solar cell fields could be installed, not to mention several Solar furnace plants.  I have toured the facility in the Mojave and the one in New Mexico also.   The economics just don't favour such things yet.  And the intensity i.e. power that US cities use as well as the need for power at night keeps alternative things low on the totem pole.  But if big changes were made to the power loading and the energy usage times, I think solar electric has great potential for non industrial uses such as routine lighting, light appliance usage, etc, for millions of homes. 

Given your expertise I'm curious as to what you think about both collector and energy storage units available today, and the landscape for future battery technology R&D, and where you imagine/see them going as far as capacity efficiency battery life/longevity etc.

I have latest model Solarhart system with 4 x 13.5KW Tesla Powerwall units in my Phuket home. 

Given that electricity in Phuket is a lot cheaper than I used to pay in Australia, its going to take a lot longer to pay for the system installed, I didn't really care about this when I decided to incorporate solar and storage into the design of the home, it was more to support the planet long term. I come form a high coal generated electrical country and know how inefficient, and very dirty our old power stations are in Oz.

I pay zero for power and fed back into the grid (figures not at hand as I write but its a lot of return feed). Had similar Tesla battery (Phuket house has new gen. Tesla and Solahart) in Australia and used to pay $500 to $700 a quarter (sometimes more - summer aircon) to run a large 4 bed home and large pool. The bill went from averaging $500 to $15 a quarter to $15. In Phuket I had my old Solahart retailer in Aussie liaise with Thai reseller in the design of the system for Phuket home, then an English electrical engineer oversee the install.   

[Tropposurfer]

8 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

Yeah, plug those panels into an 80 Megawatt furnace and see how they perform. 

 

 

 

 

Load drawdown defines the design of any industrial/communal use solar array (if those designing and building it have any professional electrical nouse that is). Smelters can be run form solar energy and are. In South Australia the Tesla array and battery systems produces 150 MegaW. and power a city - without brown-outs and lack of supply phases.

[VocalNeal]

5 minutes ago, Tropposurfer said:

Given your expertise I'm curious as to what you think about both collector and energy storage units available today, and the landscape for future battery technology R&D, and where you imagine/see them going as far as capacity efficiency battery life/longevity etc.

I believe he said solar works locally for housing. Inferred not regionally or nationally for industry.

[Tropposurfer]

44 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

I believe he said solar works locally for housing. Inferred not regionally or nationally for industry.

The questions to our elec. engineer still stand and valid. I was not decrying the electrical engineers response post nor was I  "inferring" anything other than my clear questions about hearing from that mans knowledge and sharing of same.  AS for the images and remarks about smelter and powering them with solar energy the answer to such a question is clear present and factual across the globe as to solars capacity to power both civilian and industrial works, minor and major.

[xtrnuno41]

Tada, thats what i said, cover a lake with solar panels, it generates electricity and slows evaporating of the water.

Ok have another good one, now do it on sea and use the electricity to create hydrogen.

You also create more then hydrogen. You can store and use it in a more controllable way.

OK be aware it is hydrogen. But you can burn clean in a turbine generator system.

If cars develop more in H2 motors then you are also ready to switch.

Or make a deal with SHELL, they can make fuel from CO2 and H2.

You can catch all CO2, for instance in Rayong where lots of factories are and transform it into fuel. Green fuel ! 

[Artisi]

8 hours ago, siamike said:

Whether its a large installation like this one or just a few solar panels on a single roof, turning sunlight into usable electricity is a step in the right direction.  Every watt produced by solar electric is a watt that wont need to be made by burning fossil fuels and putting more CO2 into the atmosphere.   

Of course you have carefully analysed the costs in manufacture along with the costs of disposal at end of life along with the environmental impact of producing and disposal. 

Of course you have, the manufacturers can be trusted 100% in their presentation. 

[placeholder]

19 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

as an engineer that majored in energy, thermodynamics, heat transfer etc.  back in the late 70s when energy crisis was in the news, I follow energy developments and am aware of many alternative attempts.  The USA Southwest desert states have millions of square miles of bright sunshine where it would seem that gigantic solar cell fields could be installed, not to mention several Solar furnace plants.  I have toured the facility in the Mojave and the one in New Mexico also.   The economics just don't favor such things yet.  

You sure about that? Actually it's cheaper now to build a solar power plant or wind turbine than it is to just run a coal powered plant. And new solar and wind power is cheaper than than building new fossil fuel plants.

 https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-levelized-cost-of-storage-and-levelized-cost-of-hydrogen/

 

[placeholder]

23 minutes ago, Artisi said:

Of course you have carefully analysed the costs in manufacture along with the costs of disposal at end of life along with the environmental impact of producing and disposal. 

Of course you have, the manufacturers can be trusted 100% in their presentation. 

On the other hand, the WTO estimates that fossil fuels are subsidized to the tune of 6.4% of the world's GDP.

 

"One big reason that goal is tough to hit is that we’re still heavily dependent on coal, oil, and natural gas — and governments support these forms of energy far more than clean energy.

The International Monetary Fund periodically assesses global subsidies for fossil fuels as part of its work on climate, and it found in a recent working paper that the fossil fuel industry got a whopping $5.2 trillion in subsidies in 2017. This amounts to 6.4 percent of the global gross domestic product."

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/17/18624740/fossil-fuel-subsidies-climate-imf

[natway09]

Not sure how the fish feel about this,,, but seriously they are pushing the use of electric cars 

but you try driving anywhere outside the city for more than 200 KM & you are in trouble, so yes, not a bad idea if it stacks up

[phetphet]

Didn't Tesla build a big solar array and giant power pack for a town in Australia?

Good to see Thailand at least starting to adopt some alternative power generation.

 

Now I just wish they could fix the black outs and brown outs every time it rains or there is a thunderstorm.

[gk10012001]

10 hours ago, Tropposurfer said:

Given your expertise I'm curious as to what you think about both collector and energy storage units available today, and the landscape for future battery technology R&D, and where you imagine/see them going as far as capacity efficiency battery life/longevity etc.

I have latest model Solarhart system with 4 x 13.5KW Tesla Powerwall units in my Phuket home. 

Given that electricity in Phuket is a lot cheaper than I used to pay in Australia, its going to take a lot longer to pay for the system installed, I didn't really care about this when I decided to incorporate solar and storage into the design of the home, it was more to support the planet long term. I come form a high coal generated electrical country and know how inefficient, and very dirty our old power stations are in Oz.

I pay zero for power and fed back into the grid (figures not at hand as I write but its a lot of return feed). Had similar Tesla battery (Phuket house has new gen. Tesla and Solahart) in Australia and used to pay $500 to $700 a quarter (sometimes more - summer aircon) to run a large 4 bed home and large pool. The bill went from averaging $500 to $15 a quarter to $15. In Phuket I had my old Solahart retailer in Aussie liaise with Thai reseller in the design of the system for Phuket home, then an English electrical engineer oversee the install.   

Battery technology is still advancing and I like the idea.  There are some masisive battery plants out there now.  Didn't the one that Tesla made just partially burn up some where?  However, in the total energy balance, it does take energy to make those batteries.  Mine Lithium, melt sand to make silicon, etc.  I don't have much experience on how long the home storage systems last, or are really guaranteed to last, not wear out, not degrade too much, how much maintenance they need etc.  My friend in San Diego has put up some panels because the Utility bills in San Diego California are nutty.   But he is a real geek, a true PhD.  He monitors his home's power, calculates what the electric bill should be so he can compare it against what the company calculates.  He is willing to keep things on the dark side, rarely uses the AC, he just runs a fan or two at night when the temp outside is cool, and cold soak the house during the night.  He is a EE by degree so he really knows what he is doing.  As a hobbyis, but sadly not a home owner, i built a few solar collectors in my day.Some simple air convection ones that really made a difference.  I am about to buy my retirement home in Florida and will be fiddling with all sorts of pool heating systems, to prolong the warm water a few months each year.  Some great ideas on Yutube

[rickudon]

In the UK, not exactly the best place for solar power, 4% of all electricity comes from solar. Ten years ago, it was 0.01%. Things can change quickly.