Talesun Plans New Facility in Rayong With 1 GW Solar Capacity

[Jacob Maslow]

Zhongli Talesun plans to complete a 500 MW energy facility in Thailand by October of 2015 with expansion up to a 1 GW capacity in the next 3 years.

Rayong, Thailand’s Thai-China Industrial Park, is home to the new manufacturing facility of Zhongli Talesun. The facility will be fully automated, and the company plans for 1 GW solar capacity within the country in the next 3 years. Early plans show that the facility will be completed by October of 2015. Annual production is expected to reach 500 MW of energy,

The facility will incorporate advanced processing techniques to ensure maximum output of the solar cells of the new factory.

A boost to the local economy, the company plans to further expand in the coming years with PV solar power plants. These plants will have a capacity of 1 GW and are expected to be completed within the next 3 years. In total, the PV plants will receive over $2.4 billion to be created.

The government has offered their full support of the project as well as major financial institutions within Thailand. The expansion will boost Talesun’s current solar capacity of 2 GW to 3 GW in the next 3 years. The group manufactures solar products, cables and fiber optics.

Thailand is a major hub for solar-related projects. The country is currently one of the fastest growing in terms of solar energy in all of Southeast Asia. Growing energy demands of 4% - 5% per annum are causing the country to shift to solar power in an effort to keep up with demand. The country has stated that they want to lessen their dependency on fossil fuels.

The solar boom in the country is also propelled by the government’s tariffs that allow for rooftop solar PV projects. Forecasts estimate that renewable energy in the country will rise by 25% by 2021. An increase in production to 55 GW in 2030 will be needed to sustain the population’s growing energy demands.

-- 2015-02-20

[khwaibah]

I fully support this. I know of 5 solar power farms and 1 massive wind farm in Thailand and I'm sure their are more.

[maidee]

if only they started this 10 years ago ...

[Robby nz]

Surely there must be a way to put solar panels on the roofs of the huge factory and warehouse buildings I see.

In many cases they should be able to generate their own power, or in the case of low power use industries, feed into the grid.

This would mean there would be no need for such large areas of ground to be covered by the panels as happens now.

[Srikcir]

Just to be clear what Talesun is doing ...

It is building an automated MANUFACTURING plant that will make solar energy producing cells and modules that will be sold and installed in future power plants in Thailand. This Talesun plant is not an solar-energy producing plant. It uses Chinese technology and equipment already used in China.

Apparently, the Chinese and Junta have made another government-to-government deal wherein the Chinese will invest $2.4 billion USD to build solar parks in Thailand and sell the power to the Thai power grid. So in short, no technology transfer or skilled labor for Thailand and the solar manufacturing plant and subsequent solar parks will undoubtedly receive massive tax breaks and subsidies to support the solar enterprises. But who will really knows as there seems to be a complete lack of transparency in the deal.