Work is due to begin in central Myanmar early next year on what’s been described as the biggest solar power project in Southeast Asia, media reports said last week.
The 220-megawatt solar power station will be built on a 300-hectare (about 740-acre) site at Minbu, on the Ayeyarwady River in Magway Region about 250 miles (400 kilometres) north of Yangon.
The station is being developed by Thailand’s Green Earth Power which will sell the electricity to the Ministry of Electric Power under a solar power purchase agreement, Australia’s Energymatters website reported on October 14.
Green Earth Power has appointed United States-based global infrastructure company Black & Veatch to provide design and consultancy services for the project, on which work is expected to begin in the first quarter next year, Energymatters said.
“Myanmar will be home to Southeast Asia’s largest solar power plant,” Black & Veatch said in a statement released in Nay Pyi Taw on October 13.
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“Electricity is an urgent priority in Myanmar and has serious implications on economic and social progress,” said Ric O’Connell, international renewable energy director at Black & Veatch, said in the statement.
“As solar facilities can be built rapidly, it is an excellent alternative to quickly add power to the grid and ensure meaningful impacts on quality of life,” Bangkok-based Mr O’Connell said in the statement.
Black and Veatch recently opened an office in Yangon. Black & Veatch, as Binnie and Partners, has had a connection with Myanmar dating to a water study conducted in 1912. Binnie and Partners was also involved in developing water supply infrastructure, such as the Rangoon Pegu Yomas Water Scheme between 1935 and 1941.
