Thailand to build world's largest solar farms

It plans to install 16 of these facilities with a combined capacity of 2.7GW.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) plans to build the world’s largest floating solar farms and will install 16 of these facilities with a combined capacity of 2.7GW in nine of its hydroelectric dam reservoirs by 2037, Bloomberg reports.

Several of the proposed projects are more than double the size of the world’s largest floating system now and the venture dwarfs the 1.3GW of generation installed globally as of October.

The plan represents an ambitious bet for Thailand on floating solar, which tends to be more expensive than the ground-mounted units that dominate the sector. If EGAT builds all its proposed projects, the company says floating solar will account for one-tenth of the country’s clean energy sources, compared to just 1% of global solar capacity by 2050, according to BloombergNEF.

“As the cost of solar equipment comes down, many developers are looking at water with grid connection,” said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis for BloombergNEF in London. “This seems to be a great combination of long-term and well-structured planning, with individual projects identified already."

Read the full report here.