Solar power systems on Dau Tieng irrigation reservoir
At the workshop “Solar power on irrigation reservoir” organized recently, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the potential of solar power from irrigation reservoirs in Vietnam has attracted a great interest from many businesses. According to statistics, with about 7,000 reservoirs and millions of square kilometer of water surface area, these works are particularly attractive to businesses to invest in solar power production. It is estimated that if the existing water surface area is drastically exploited, the capacity of solar power can reach 15,000MW.
In Vietnam, the solar power project using semi-submerged land of Dau Tieng reservoir with a capacity of 420MWp and the floating solar power project in Da Mi reservoir with capacity of 47.5MWp are the two first solar power ones exploiting land area and water surface of the reservoir to generate commercial power. There are many great advantages in the projects such as compensation, construction and has safely generated commercial power to the national grid.
Mr. Dam Quang Vu - Chairman of Board of Quang Vu Energy Joint Stock Company, a representative of enterprises specializing in providing energy solutions on the water surface, shared that solar cells on the water surface are currently designed with many advanced technologies, capable of limiting evaporation as well as preserving water environment by reducing the amount of solar radiation in the reservoir area.
According to Vice Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep, for the purpose of ensuring the effective implementation on the irrigation reservoirs, it is crucial to conduct research, specifically calculate related factors for the exploitable reservoirs as well as giving specific criteria and regulations on environmental protection, efficient water supply to serve daily life and agricultural production when operating and exploiting reservoirs, etc.
There should be orientated recommendations for the units and localities that directly manage irrigation reservoirs on the types of reservoirs to be allowed or not allowed for power generation. If it is allowed to, how to do it and how to formulate the regulations, etc. These are new issues and for the first time in Vietnam, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is striving to promulgate specific documents for developing solar power at irrigation reservoirs in 2020.