The German juwi group pushes forward the Thai energy transition: The company is constructing five free-field photovoltaic plants in two provinces in Northwestern and Eastern Thailand, in Kamphaeng Phet and in Ubon Ratchathani.

The solar parks have a capacity of 48 MW. The contract between juwi and the Investor Soleq Solar Thailand Co. Ltd. was signed on 14th of December, first construction work has already started. In order to protect the sites from extraordinary floods like in 2011 the plants will be equipped with comprehensive flood protection systems.

The frequency and intensity of these extraordinary weather events increases due to climate change and need to be considered when planning solar farms.

"Climate change presents us with special challenges. Therefore the specialist for renewable energies, its Thai construction partner and the Investor conducted and analyzed hydrological studies for each location to implement protection also for extraordinary weather events.

"The solar farms are equipped with trenches, dykes, water retention basins and pumping stations. Dykes protect the system from external flooding. If it rains heavily and water accumulates in the area of the solar parks, the water will be drained by the installed pumping systems.

"The solar power systems will be able to cope with all kinds of weather conditions," says Amiram Roth-Deblon, Regional Director Asia Pacific of juwi. juwi will also be responsible for the solar park's operational management.

Construction work strengthens Thai businesses: The project directly creates jobs for more than 1,000 people during engineering and construction and operational jobs for the entire lifetime of more than 20 years. The solar farms will have a total module area of 314,667 square meters and will produce 70,400,000 kilowatt hours of clean energy annually.

This will provide clean electricity for more than 30 000 Thai households and saves 37,000 tons of climate-damaging CO2 annually. The solar power plants are scheduled to be connected to the grid between July to September 2013.

The produced power will be fed into the local grid. "Thailand has proven to be dedicated to renewable energies and is therefore an interesting market. We invest in Thailand for the long-term and plan to support the Kingdom in its effort to become independent from fossil fuels," says Amiram Roth-Deblon.

More good news for the climate comes from India. Together with its business partner Green Infra Limited juwi completed two solar power systems in Rajasthan with a total capacity of 26 MW, of which 17 MW have already been connected to the grid. The solar park is situated on a former converted military site and has a projected annual energy yield of 46,500,000 kilowatt hours. It saves 12,000 tons of climate-damaging CO2 annually.

"India has become one of the most promising solar markets in the world today. Green Infra and juwi India together look to play a key role in developing India's solar market and in connecting larger plants to the grid in the coming years;" say Shiv Nimbargi, Managing Director and CEO Green Infra, and Rajeshwara Bhat, Managing Director juwi India.

"With the projects in Thailand and India juwi is strengthening its activities in Asia Pacific and is actively contributing to the energy turnaround in the region.