TSE eyes entry into solar-farm sector in Japan

Thai Solar Energy has studied the feasibility of entering the solar-farm business in Japan, while in Thailand it is in merger talks with some operators in a bid to expand solar-generation capacity.

Somphop Prompanapitak, chief financial officer of TSE, said yesterday that the discussions were expected to wrap up this year. 

TSE plans to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand early next year.

TSE has teamed up with The Mall, an operator of shopping centres, and Home Product Center, the operator of HomePro home-furnishing outlets, to develop 11 rooftop solar projects with combined capacity of 11 megawatts at a cost of about Bt700 million.

TSE will be solely responsible for the investment and will share some revenue with the two partners on a mutually agreed-upon proportion. TSE has also signed 25-year contracts with them to use space on their roofs to install the solar panels. 

Cathleen Maleenont, chief operating officer of TSE, said the agreement covered eight HomePros and three branches of The Mall.

TSE has submitted 39 proposals to sell 39MW of rooftop solar power to the Provincial Electricity Authority and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, of which 11 have already been approved. The company expects two or three more of its proposals to be selected. The state enterprises started announcing the names of the winning proposals on Monday and will complete the announcement in a few days. 

TSE is confident that all its rooftop solar projects will start feeding the grid by December 31. 

Of its Bt700-million capital-expenditure plan, 70 per cent will be financed from loans and the rest from its own cash. Each project is expected to generate annual revenue of Bt9 million to Bt10 million for a combined Bt110 million per year. 

 

Feed-in tariff

With a feed-in tariff of Bt6.16 per unit, the projects are projected to break even within six or seven years.

Somphop said TSE had finished developing five solar farms and was constructing five more, which should be completed this year. The 10 farms have a combined capacity of 80MW. 

The 10 solar farms, which cost more than Bt7 billion for development, are expected to generate revenue of Bt1.4 billion per year. Their adder rate is Bt6.50 per unit. TSE holds 60 per cent and PTT 40 per cent in each of these 10 projects.