FLOATING SOLAR PANELS TO COVER PART OF RESERVOIR

NAKHON RATCHASIMA - The provincial waterworks authority has approved a plan to install floating solar panels on 12 per cent of the Lam Takhong reservoir, one of the largest projects of its kind in the region.

The panels will sit on plastic floats anchored to the reservoir bed. According to the company that won the contract, they will generate enough electricity to run the authority's two water treatment plants during daylight hours, cutting its power bill by about 30 per cent. Construction is due to begin in March and to take 14 months.

Company engineer Pornthip Saelee said the water keeps the panels cooler than panels on land, which the company expects to raise their output slightly. She added that shading part of the surface should reduce evaporation, although "we will only know how much after the first dry season."

Not everyone is convinced. The local fishing cooperative says its members were not consulted until after the plan had been approved. Its chairman, Somsak Thongdee, said the floats would cover an area where several families fish for a living. "We are not against clean energy," he said. "We are against decisions that are made about us without us."

The authority's director, Wanida Rattana, said the panels had been placed away from the main fishing grounds identified in a 2019 survey, and that the authority would meet the cooperative next month. She admitted that the survey was "a few years old" and said it would be updated before construction starts.

If the project meets its targets, the authority plans to propose a second phase covering another 8 per cent of the reservoir.