Solar energy technology shines in Thailand

Finishing touches are being put on the first large-scale direct-steam-generation-based parabolic trough power plant in Asia.

The sun shines brightly as about 10 workers clean the troughs before the final reflective layers are fastened to the structure, which is to begin generating solar-powered electricity from the end of August.

The plant has a nominal capacity of 5 megawatts. It would be the world's first commercial parabolic trough power plant using water instead of thermal oil as a heat carrier.

“It's a milestone for us,” Joachim Krueger, the founder of Solarlite GmbH, the German company building the plant, said at the plant's final inspection.

Krueger's team has taken 18 months to construct the solar thermal power plant for electricity provider Thai Solar Energy Co Ltd in Huai Krachao, 350 kilometers north-west of Bangkok.

Using groundbreaking technology, Solarlite has developed parabolic mirrors out of light composite material. “I'm waiting impatiently for the start,” Krueger said.

The plant occupies 100,000 square meters and consists of 32 parabolic troughs, each 360 meters in length, creating a combined reflective surface of 45,000 square meters.

The troughs rotate from east to west to track the sun. The sun's energy is reflected onto a receiver pipe positioned at the focus of the parabolic mirror. Water passing through the receiver pipe is heated by the concentrated reflected sun radiation and is converted into steam, which produces electricity by means of a turbine generator.

“There is no danger of oil leaks,” Krueger said. “The system is completely environmentally friendly.”

German solar technology experts, welders, metal workers and plastics engineers have been working alongside Thai employees on the plant's construction.

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