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Empowering the world compassionately
Corporate Communications, B.Grimm
B.Grimm Power’s goal is to enlarge the proportion of clean power in its overall energy portfolio, as part of the effort to reduce global warming and take care of the environment in a sustainable way
Thailand has long been promoting and supporting energy development, especially in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Among the country’s leading players in renewable energy is B.Grimm Power, an energy company under the umbrella of B.Grimm, Thailand’s oldest German-Thai infrastructure developer founded in 1878.
At present, the 143-year-old B.Grimm is a conglomerate active in building and industrial systems, health care, lifestyle, transportation, real estate, digital technologies and energy businesses.
B.Grimm started its energy business in 1993 by pioneering Thailand’s emerging private power generation industry with B.Grimm Power as its investment arm. Today, B.Grimm Power, with the vision of “Empowering the World Compassionately”, is one of Kingdom’s leading industrial power producers, and has been focusing on cleaner energy production through its co-generation and renewable energy power plants. The company has been a listed public company limited since 2017.
In view of global climate change, B.Grimm Power has expanded its renewable energy business and has already produced a notable amount of renewable energy (solar, hydro- and wind power plants) in Thailand and many different countries, including Vietnam, South Korea, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Laos.
In 2019, B.Grimm Power successfully inaugurated the commercial operation of the largest solar power generation project in South-East Asia in Tay Ninh, south-west Vietnam. This year, the B.Grimm Power-Energy China consortium has brought a new era for renewable energy development in Thailand by successfully completing work at the world’s largest hydro-floating solar hybrid project at the Sirindhorn Dam for the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). The work includes the installation of seven sets of solar cell panels, buoys, a concrete underwater anchor system, and a switchgear building at the site in north-eastern Ubon Ratchathani province.
The solar farm at Sirindhorn Dam covers a surface area of more than 450 rai (one rai = 1,600 m2) of the dam’s reservoir. The solar panels and related equipment are mounted on buoys made from High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) that is not harmful to aquatic animals or the environment. The solar panels used for the scheme are the double glass type and the system is moisture resistant, able to withstand water movement of the reservoir and a constant wind force.
The system shares various existing resources at the dam including transformers, transmission lines and high voltage stations, thus making the operation cost-effective by translating into lower tariffs. It also helps to reduce greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions by about 47,000 tonnes per year.
“We are pleased and proud to be a part of the endeavour that brings a new era for renewable energy development in Thailand by integrating solar and hydroelectric power in a hybrid system,” according to Dr. Harald Link, Chairman and President of B.Grimm Power.
B.Grimm Power is also committed to expediting its solar rooftop business in the country and overseas. The emphasis on solar rooftops is in response to greater awareness of clean energy use to tackle environmental issues. At this juncture, B.Grimm Power is committed to supporting and collaborating with organisations around the world to increase the share of clean energy in the overall power portfolio in order to deal with global warming problems and take care of the environment in a sustainable way.
By expanding the renewable energy business to cover solar rooftops and floating solar, B.Grimm Power can offer a distribution and maintenance model to customers in an integrated and effective manner and be capable of addressing environmental issues. These are critical factors explaining why the company is proactively pursuing the solar rooftop business. Another factor driving B.Grimm Power into the solar rooftop business is a requirement for long-term maintenance services for the system. As a result, most of the contracts with customers last 15-25 years during which a long-term relationship between the company and clients is forged to jointly create clean energy. Such ties also pave the way for the concerned parties to transform business gains into social benefits to reflect B.Grimm Power’s vision of “Empowering the World Compassionately.”
“The solar rooftop business model is in response to social and environmental needs as well as help us to build long-term partnerships with customers. Today, the solar rooftop has made us more accessible and easier for others to understand what it means to conduct business with compassion,” said Dr. Harald Link.
B.Grimm Power has been negotiating and studying the possibility of expanding investment in renewable energy projects in many countries such as South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Currently, B.Grimm Power has a total of 50 power plants in commercial operation. The company aims to ramp up its total installed capacity from 3,058 MW at the end of 2020 to at least 7,200 MW of secured PPA by 2025 and to 10,000 MW by 2030 with annual revenue of more than 100 billion baht being targeted. More importantly, B.Grimm Power is moving strenuously towards realising net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Contact details: Prapai Kraisornkovit, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, B.Grimm Power Public Co., Ltd., Tel: + 66 2710 3041, prapai.k@bgrimmpower.com, www.bgrimmpower.com
