Green Dec20 2012.qxd

The Nation Green Report
Page 10
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Renewable Energy
NED’S sun-power farm is the Kingdom’s most modern
and largest, producing 84 megawatts.
SOLAR PANELS were fitted and operational within 18 months.
SUN POWER
NED solar farm brings opportunities to Lop Buri
Thailand’s largest
sun power facility
inspires students
Itthi C Tan
The Nation
KHOK SAMRONG, LOP BURI
F
or three rural villages surrounding the 1,400-rai solar
farm operated by Natural
Energy
Development
(NED), the largest in operation in
Asia, life looks increasingly bright.
It is not because the area is converting sunlight into 84 megawatts of
electricity, enough to serve 70,000
households or 350,000 people.
Mushroom farmer Nuj Nuiplee
admits villagers were filled with anxiety when they first heard the farm
was being built next door.
“Our biggest concern was: Would
it emit pollution and how safe is it?”
she says.
“We worry about our health and
that of our children. We did not wan
to see environmental degradation.”
Their fears were valid. Previous
investors who came here have not
been particularly kind.
One chicken farmer discharged
raw sewage right onto the surrounding land.
“The smell was foul,” she recalls.
It was a huge relief for Nuj and villagers at Ban Chom Muang that their
worst fears were unrealised.
Two years after the world class
facility started construction, their lives
have seen gradual improvement.
The sales of their goods, mostly
foodstuffs and crops have risen.
Demand for local labour has also
meant locals were employed.
NED hired 1,400 villagers to build
the plant. The idyllic country life they
had been accustomed was gone.
But no one was complaining.
Job opportunities and better education have come to Nuj’s village as
well as those of Ban Khao Tien and
Ban Mamuang Ched Ton.
Khao Tien School teacher Chan
Chalee, 41, appears as excited as his
pupils.
The primary school with 126 students aged six to 12 was swept up by
the tide of change, being next door to
the region’s most talked-about solar
farm.
“It is our duty to teach children why
solar energy is beneficial and how it
works,” Chan, who came from
Ratchaburi province, says.
STUDENTS attend classes at Khok
Samrong district.
To make the connection, he showed
how solar panels, donated by NED,
worked.
The panels can charge mobile
phones and any electrical appliance.
That got the children hooked.
He demonstrated how solar power
ran generators, making farming
chores efficient. For example, the
sprinklers can be turned on by simply flicking a switch and fields are
irrigated with ease.
“I am astonished by the pupils’
interest,” he says. His office is filled
with handicraft, models and ebooks, made by youngsters inspired
by what they learned about clean
fuels.”
The solar farm ties in with His
Majesty King Bhumipol Adulyadej’s
policy of self-sufficiency and the need
to combat climate change, cause by
carbon dioxide emissions.
Today, the children here are fully
aware of the need to conserve
resources and reduce waste.
Asian Development Bank, which
provided a quarter of the Bt5.4 billion financing for NED, is also
pleased with the outcome. “Getting
children to change the behaviour of
parents is actually quite effective,”
says ADB country director Craig
Steffensen.
NED PROVIDES some supplies to students in the Khok
Samrong community.
KHAO TIEN SCHOOL teacher Chan Chalee says students are keen to know more
about clean fuels.
ROSARIN CHANNGUAN, 33, quit her job in Bangkok to work
The success of the NED project has
drawn interest from regional markets
to adopt similar approaches to renewables, he adds.
NED plant manager Chaiwut
Saengpredekkorn, 39, says requests
to visit the facility are overwhelming.
“So many local and foreign groups
want to come,” the Songkhla-born scientist says. “At the moment, we can
accommodate one or two groups a
week.
“More than that and it would be
impossible for us to work.” With the
grand opening of the plant scheduled for late June, Chaiwut says he
in Lop Buri.
is rather proud of the company’s
accomplishment.
“I was among the scouting team
looking for suitable land when it began
three years ago,” he confides. “We
spent a year to look for land in four
short listed provinces and we completed the purchase.”
“We concluded Khok Samrong was
ideal as it was less than three hours
drive from Bangkok and it has had
arid land with clear skies most of the
year.” Under Thai guidelines, farmlands cannot be used in way that
affects crop production.
The young team, with an average
FARMER Nuj Nuiplee says villagers benefit from the rural investment.
age of 35, were professional in their
approach. “We knew that we needed
land that would be well protected from
storms and floods.”
Their labour paid off. Last year the
plant was spared the inundation as it
was situated 70 metres above sea level.
Other solar farms in poor location
were not so lucky.
Most impressive of all, was the
speed by which the team built and
delivered the payload in a mere 18
months, unheard off in a place where
some infrastructure work often took
an eternity to complete.
“We did not just finish the plant on
time but we also built the connecting
power lines to transport the electricity to the Provincial Electricity
Authority power station,” he says.
This comprised 12 kilometres of
elevated cable and supporting poles.
A Bt100-million office with a watch
tower and a museum was also recently completed.
For Lop Buri native Rosarin
Channguan, 33, NED has allowed her
to quit working in Bangkok in a career
move that takes her home.
As NED’s administrative officer,
Rosarin enjoys the switch as it allows
her to spend more time with her family. “It meant plenty of savings as well.
“Working in Bangkok was so costly and much of my pay went to rent
and it’s expensive living in Bangkok.”
Rosarin says she can now get married
as her financial position has improved.
“Here, I save on transport and
time,” she laughs.
Projects like NED can help stem
the tide of urban migration, which is
a ticking time bomb for a capital that
is beginning to breaking down from
overpopulation and congestion.
Ideally, Rosarin says, more good
jobs may be created in Lop Buri for the
town to retain its young talents.
NED is a joint venture between
CLP Renewables (CLP), Diamond
Generating Asia – a wholly owned
subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation,
and Electricity Generating Public
Company (EGCO).
PLANT MANAGER Chaiwut Saengpredekkorn at work.