German photovoltaic developer juwi has announced that is has begun construction on a project that will see five solar parks, with a combined capacity of 48 MW, developed in Thailand. The power power plants will be equipped to deal with floods, such as those that took place in Thailand in 2011.
Being an archipelago, the nation of Thailand is well suited to photovoltaic development. However in building five photovoltaic power plants in the country’s Northwestern and Eastern provinces, developer juwi has had to take into account the likelihood that extraordinary flooding events may become more common.
The new juwi plants, which will cover 314,667 square meters of land, will therefore be equipped with trenches, dykes, water retention basins and pumping stations to protect them from floodwaters.
“Climate change presents us with special challenges,” said Amiram Roth-Deblon, juwi’s regional director Asia Pacific, in announcing the development. “Therefore the specialist for renewable energies, its Thai construction partner and the investor conducted and analyzed hydrological studies for each location to implement protection also for extraordinary weather events.”
The German based developer has announced that construction is underway on the five-plant project and that the power plants are scheduled to be grid connected between July and September 2013.
juwi will be responsible for the five park’s operation and maintenance.
In the same release, juwi has announced that it has completed two photovoltaic power plants in Rajasthan, with a total capacity of 26 MW. 17 MW has already been connected to the grid. One of the solar power plants is located on a former military site in Rajasthan. The projects were developed by juwi India and Green Infra.
“India has become one of the most promising solar markets in the world today. Green Infra and juwi India together look to play a key role in developing India’s solar market and in connecting larger plants to the grid in the coming years;” said Shiv Nimbargi, Managing Director and CEO Green Infra, and Rajeshwara Bhat, managing director juwi India, in a joint statement.
