Ciel & Terre and SCG to develop floating hydro solar system in Thailand
Thailand petrochemical firm SCG and Ciel & Terre, a supplier of floating solar systems, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a floating solar system for hydro dams in Thailand.
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Floating solar systems can be combined with existing hydropower dams to create powerful energy-generating hybrid systems. Floating solar installations can use the already existing substations, transmission lines, and other hydroelectric utility dam infrastructure to boost the energy yield of hydro dams. As a hybrid system, periods of low water availability can be compensated by floating solar systems, thus allowing the hydropower plant to operate in “peaking” rather than “baseload” mode – depending on the technological possibilities.
Also, the floating solar installation can help to reduce water evaporation that many countries encounter. potential equal to 400 GWp by only covering 10% of the dam reservoirs total capacity worldwide.
Dr Suracha Udomsak, Chief Technology Officer, Chemicals Business of SCG, said, “SCG is totally committed to innovation for sustainability. We are always striving to innovate our polymer performance and its application with our R&D activities and networks globally. With the partnership with Ciel & Terre, we together will provide the best floating pontoon system for floating solar photovoltaics installation.”
Harold Meurisse, CEO of Ciel & Terre Thailand, said, “Thailand has always been a promising market for Ciel & Terre, a country where the solar industry is in demand of cost competitivity without compromising the safety and quality of the PV installation. Therefore, partnering with SCG appeared as an evidence, combining the best of two worlds, polymer and floating solar experts, to embrace the major opportunity of hybridisation of floating solar system and hydrolectric dams. We are looking forward to extend this partnership to a broader regional level.”