GermanSolar Asia Co (辰亞能源) is teaming up with a French partner on a project to build a floating solar panel system in a reservoir in Kaohsiung, the first stage of which is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, the Taiwanese firm said on Thursday.
Austin Yu (游祥益), project supervisor of the Hsinchu-based GermanSolar, said it is working with French solar energy firm Ciel & Terre to set up Taiwan’s first floating solar panel in a reservoir, at Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫).
He made the remarks at the Taiwan International Green Industry Show, which began on Wednesday and finished yesterday, bringing together more than 200 exhibitors from home and abroad.
Speaking of the cooperative project, Yu said the French company will share its experience in building floating solar panel systems, as well as the required technology.
Design work and equipment production will be done in Taiwan, he said, adding that the first stage of the project is expected to be completed by the end of June next year.
In the first stage, the system is expected to generate 2.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, Yu said.
Ciel & Terre, which developed floating solar panels in 2011, has set up operations in China and Japan and has helped to establish floating solar power systems there, company spokesman Philippe Deschamps said.
The company will be able to replicate its success in Japan in the Kaohsiung project, Deschamps told reporters at the company’s booth at the show in Taipei.
Ciel & Terre set up a Taiwan branch earlier this year, seeking to advance cooperation with Taiwanese partners in the field of “green” energy, Cedric Jaeg of Ciel & Terre Taiwan said.
The cooperative project comes at a time when the government is seeking to expand sources of renewable energy in an effort to make the country nuclear-power-free by 2025.
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