Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 48

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
international climate action by insuring and investing in coal projects. All responsible companies must make coal uninsurable by ending support for both new and existing mines and power plants, including the Adani Group’s destructive Carmichael coal mine in Australia.”
SOLAR
Pakistan sets sights on
floating solar as water
scarcity bites
With Pakistan’s water reserves fast depleting, floating solar will be a key part of conserving resources and producing cheap energy, according to the nation’s minister for Power and Petroleum Omar Ayub Khan, PV Tech reported.
Speaking at a conference on the water crisis, Khan announced that floating solar systems would be installed in four reservoirs besides canals at Tarbela, Mangla, Ghazi Barotha and Khanpur.
He noted Pakistan’s plans to roll out 18- 20GW in new hydropower capacity – taking the power source to 70% of the energy mix
– and to ramp up nuclear power to 10% of the energy mix. The new hydro capacity would also offer great opportunities for FPV projects.
Speaking on water conservation, Khan said: “Not just flood irrigation system we have been used to. The world has moved on. We have to make sure that this resource is jealously guarded and used. We are already finalising plans with floating solar.”
The government is already in discussions with the energy ministry of Punjab over placing floating solar on its canals so that its irrigation systems can also be run on solar power. Meanwhile, 29,000 tube wells in Balochistan will also be converted to solar. Floating PV modules not only produce energy but they also reduce water evaporation and water wastage.
Khan noted that solar will continue to decrease in price, given that the country has adopted competitive bidding for all new projects under its new renewable energy policy.
China to build space-based solar power station by 2035
China plans to build a 200MW space-based solar power station by 2035, according to the
China Academy of Space Technology (CAST). The space-based solar power station would
capture the sun’s energy that never makes it to the planet, said Wang Li, a CAST research fellow with the programme, when attending the sixth China-Russia Engineering Forum held last week in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province.
The energy is converted to microwaves or lasers and then beamed wirelessly back to the Earth’s surface for human consumption, Wang said.
“We hope to strengthen international cooperation and make scientific and technological breakthroughs so that humankind can achieve the dream of limitless clean energy at an early date,” Wang said.
Compared with traditional fossil energy, which has been increasingly exhausted and is responsible for severe environmental issues, space-based solar power is more efficient and sustainable, providing a reliable power supply solution for satellites and disaster-hit areas or isolated areas on the Earth, Wang said.
The concept of collecting solar power
in space was popularised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1941. In 1968, Peter Glaser, an American aerospace engineer, wrote a formal proposal for a solar-based system in space.
With an investment of 200mn yuan ($28.4mn), China is building a testing base in Bishan, southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, for the research of high-power wireless energy transmission and its impact on the environment.
Thailand’s BCPG eyes Malaysia, Taiwan
Singapore-listed BCPG Plc plans to develop power generation from solar panels in Malaysia and Taiwan in the near future.
Governments of both countries are allowing private power companies to develop renewable power projects, said Charnvit Trangadisaikul, executive vice-president for corporate business development.
“The two countries will be new overseas markets for us after Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos,” he said.
BCPG is operating and developing a combined capacity of 562 megawatts from solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower projects.
Charnvit said BCPG submitted documents to bid for a solar power project in Malaysia with a capacity of 100MW. The auction result will be announced early 2020.
The Malaysian government opened the bidding for investors to participate in 500MW of renewable power generation on Aug 8
to meet its energy mix goal of 20% from renewable resources by 2025.
He said the Taiwanese government is planning to allow companies to develop offshore wind and solar farms.
“Taiwan targets development of over 10 gigawatts from renewable power by 2030. It recently announced an auction for 5.5GW offshore wind farms,” said Mr Charnvit. “Taiwan has good potential for offshore wind farms because its geography lends itself to high wind speeds.”
Week 48 04•December•2019
w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m
P11