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Thai firm inaugurates first of eight solar farms
Jun 7, 2011, 10:27 GMT

Bangkok - Thailand on Tuesday opened a 3-megawatt solar farm, first of eight projects planned by the Solarta Company, a Thai joint-venture using German technology.

The plant in Ayutthaya province, 60 kilometres north of Bangkok, was opened with Buddhist monks on hand to bless the project.

'The Sai Sena solar farm will help Thailand to avoid at least 1,971 tons of greenhouse gases annually,' said Noppol Milinanggoon, chief executive of Ratchaburi Electricity, which runs the joint venture together with Yanhee Solar Power.

Solarta plans to develop seven more solar projects with a combined capacity of 34.25 megawatts.

'Thailand's combination of generous sunlight, attractive financial incentives and national political will have pushed solar photovoltaic decisively along,' said Marc Lohoff, Asia Pacific president of German technology supplier Conergy.

The government, which has a goal of using 20 per cent renewable energy for its national grid by the year 2022, started granting subsidized rates to energy purchased from solar farms four years ago.

'The subsidies in place have made the industry take off,' Lohoff said.

Thailand's solar push has received an unexpected boost from Japan's nuclear disaster caused by the March 11 tsunami.

In the run-up to the July 3 general elections, all main parties have for now abandoned earlier platforms advocating nuclear plants.

'The current situation in Japan shows once again that we are on the right track with the increased investment into solar energy in Thailand,' said Supot Sumitvanitcha, chief executive of Yanhee Solar.
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Solar Power to see 50% of revenue from electricity sales in 2012
By SUCHEERA PINIJPARAKARN
THE NATION
Published on May 20, 2011

Solar Power, a major producer of solar farms, plans to increase the proportion of its revenue from electricity generation to more than 50 per cent next year, under the business plan after its merger with Steel Intertech, a listed company in the Market for Alternative Investment.

Solar Power has become the major shareholder in Steel Intertech and will be renamed SPCG. The new name is expected to be announced after the shareholder meeting next month, said Wandee Khunchornyakong, president of Solar Power.

Wandee said Steel Intertech would produce roof tiles and metal sheet for Solar Power's plants, which will help control the cost of construction materials as the company builds 34 solar-farm projects by 2013.

The company started to sell electricity from its solar farm in Nakhon Ratchasima to the Provincial Electricity Authority last May, which realised revenue of about Bt73 million last year.

The company currently has three solar farms with capacity of 6 megawatts each. Under the 2011 business plan, it will have 10 solar-power projects this year, and the output of five of them will be sold to the PEA.

"We estimate that five plants will generate revenue of about Bt300 million this year. Meanwhile Steel Intertech's annual revenue is about Bt300 million, which means that under the new company name, we will have revenue of about Bt600 million," she said. The proportion of revenue from power production will increase to more than 50 per cent next year thanks to the new solar-farm projects.

Wandee said the company would gradually build new solar farms, completing 34 projects with combined capacity of 204MW by the end of 2013. The investment budget required for all 34 projects will be Bt21 billion. Solar Power has appointed Kasikornbank to be the lead arranger of syndicated loans.

Krisada Lamsam, executive vice president of KBank, said baht-denominated fixed loans, debentures and syndicated loans would be offered to Solar Farm. Solar farms are low-risk projects because the buyer of electricity is the state. Moreover, the period for return of investment of solar farms is only eight years, so a fixed-rate loan will help customers be more flexible.

Loans for renewable energy account for 5 per cent of total corporate loans at KBank, Krisada said. KBank is the market leader in loans for the segment, with about Bt150 billion of the total Bt161 billion in renewable-energy loans.

Solar energy has a bright outlook with the government's new power development plan (PDP), which seeks to boost consumption of electricity from renewable sources to 8 per cent within 20 years. Currently, the proportion does not exceed 1 per cent.

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Solar power in Ayutthaya
Published: 8/06/2011 at 04:05 PM
Bangkok Post: Online news: Learning From News
 
The first 3 megawatt electricity generating solar farm of a 100 megawatt project is now operating and selling electricity. Wind power and biomass are next.

3-MW solar farm launched by Nareerat Wiriyapong

AYUTTHAYA : Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc expects to complete its 100-megawatt renewable energy programme ahead of the original 2016 target and will explore more solar and wind opportunities both at home and abroad.



Through its joint venture with Yanhee Solar Power, Thailand's largest private power producer will spend 5 billion baht this year to develop eight solar farms with a combined capacity of 34.25 megawatts.

The first 3-MW unit began operations yesterday.

SET-listed Ratchaburi owns a 49% stake in the venture, Solarta Co, with the balance belonging to Yanhee Solar Power, a unit of Yanhee Hospital Plc.

"We had planned to have 100-MW worth of renewable energy projects by 2016. But now it looks like these projects will be up and running well ahead of that target, so now we're planning additional projects," said Ratchaburi president Noppol Milinthanggoon.

He said that apart from a 60-MW wind farm now under construction in Phetchabun's Khao Kho district, the company was eyeing more wind energy and biomass projects in Thailand and renewable energy investments abroad

Solarta will complete the seven other solar projects this year to operate from next year. The projects will cost a combined 4.4 billion baht, with 75% financed by loans from Kasikornbank and Bangkok Bank and the rest from equity.

All projects will be subsidised with an adder tariff of 8 baht per kilowatt-hour for 10 years and supply the electricity to the Provincial Electricity Authority under non-firm power purchase agreements for small power producers.

Mr Noppol said the renewable power projects would generate returns on investment of at least 10

Solarta's first project, Sai Sena in Ayutthaya's Sena district, will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2,500 tonnes and reduce oil imports by 8,500 barrels a year

"We will pursue new investments and gradually develop solar energy to meet the growing demand for solar energy both in this country and the rest of the world," said Mr Noppol.

Shares of Ratchaburi (RATCH) closed yesterday on the SET at 43.25 baht, up 75 satang

(Source: Bangkok Post, 3-MW solar farm launched, 8/06/2011, Nareerat Wiriyapong, link) 

Power Generation Vocabulary

energy - power from sources such as electricity and coal that is used to create light, run machines or provide heat, for example (See Wikipedia)

renewable energy - renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished) unlike energy from fossil fuels (See Wikipedia and Google Definitions)

power - energy in the form of electricity produced in large quantities and used to operate lights, machines, and heating

solar - involving the sun เกี่ยวกับดวงอาทิตย์
solar power - technologies that convert sunlight into electricity (See Wikipedia)

solar farm - an electricity generation system with man solar panels in one place generating at least one megawatt of power, solar panels are photovoltaic (PV) systems (See Google Definitions)
photovoltaic (PV) system - solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors using the "photovoltaic effect" in physics (See Wikipedia)

wind power - technologies that convert wind energy into "a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships" (See Wikipedia)

biomass - plant material or waste material used as fuel in a power station for generation of electricity (See Wikipedia and Google Definitions)

clean coal technology - low pollution energy generation from coal (See Wikipedia)


greenhouse gases - a natural part of the atmosphere, they "absorb and re-radiate the sun's warmth, and maintain the Earth's surface temperature at a level necessary to support life," when they are removed from the atmosphere believed to produce "global warming" (See Wikipedia and Google Definitions)

global warming - the current rise in the average temperature of Earth's oceans and atmosphere resulting in changing weather with floods and droughts, "the scientific consensus is that global warming is occurring and was initiated by human activities, especially those that increase concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as deforestation and burning of fossil fuels. This finding is recognized by the national science academies of all the major industrialized countries and is not rejected by any scientific body of national or international standing" (See Wikipedia)

emissions - amounts of gas, heat, light, etc. that are sent out; gases released into the air (from cars, factories, etc) การปล่อยออกมา

launched - started เริ่มต้นดำเนินการ

Electricity Generating - same as "generate electricity"

generate electricity (verb) - create electrity (in a power plant)
generation (noun) - the act of creating 
generator (noun) - a thing that creates 
power generation (noun) - the act of creating electricity
power generator (noun) - the thing that creates electricity

watt - a measure of power output or energy conversion.

megawatt (MW) - one million watts, used to measure power producing capacity of electrical generators operated by utility companies: "A large residential or retail building may consume several megawatts in electric power and heating energy....Modern high-powered diesel-electric railroad locomotives typically have a peak power output of 3 to 5 MW, whereas U.S. nuclear power plants have net summer capacities between about 500 and 1300 MW".