Surin: SPCG Plc, the sole listed solar farm supplier and operator, has reached an agreement with Japan’s leading solar panel manufacturer Kyocera Corporation to jointly invest in solar rooftop business there.
Chairman and chief executive Wandee Khunchornyakong said details of the first project in Japan would be finalised early next year but investment cost would be at least 1 billion baht.
Solar rooftop business in Japan has high potential because the central government intends to phase out nuclear power and replace some of its nuclear power capacity with renewable energy including solar, she said.
Business opportunity remains high even though the Japanese government has slashed prices for feed-in tariffs for solar energy.
The cut was made for the second year in a row to reflect the declining prices of solar panels.
SPCG president Somsak Khunchornyakong said the size of solar farm projects in Japan would range from 80 to 200 megawatts.
The company has allocated 2-3 billion baht for solar farms in Indochina to tap rising demand in the region. Kyocera is considered a potential strategic partner for SPCG to expand the business in Southeast Asia.
“However, the project is still in an early stage and the final decision should be made by the end of this year,” Mr Somsak said.
SPCG’s overseas expansion began last October when the company set up a joint venture for turnkey solar farm projects in Saudi Arabia with local partner Malasel Group at a cost of 100 million baht.
The Saudi government has a policy to buy 50,000 MW of electricity from solar farms over the next 15 years to reduce the use of fossil fuels in generating electricity, said Mrs Wandee.
With the operation of its Surin 2 solar farm last week, SPCG has completed all 36 solar farm projects for which it was granted licences by the Energy Ministry since 2009.
SPCG owns 75% of the project, with the rest belonging to PEA Encom International Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Provincial Electricity Authority.
The two firms also have joint ventures in three other solar farms — Surin 1 Co, Khon Kaen 10 Co and Loei 2 Co 2.
Its first project, Korat 1 Co in Nakhon Ratchasima, was Thailand’s first solar farm connected to the grid. Operated since 2010, the company has invested 700 million baht in the 6-MW solar farm.
So far, nearly 24 billion baht has been invested in all 36 projects to provide capacity of 260 MW.
As of March this year, Thailand had solar farms and solar rooftop in operation with total capacity of 960 MW, compared with 823 MW at the end of last year.
Mrs Wandee said SPCG expects sales from solar to increase 30% this year to 6.5 billion baht from 5 billion in 2013, a year when only 23 projects were in operation.
Shares of SPCG on the Stock Exchange of Thailand closed on Thursday at 25 baht, down one baht, in trade worth 390 million baht.