Taungdaw Gwin Solar PV Project – 20 MW
Taungdaw Gwin Solar PV Project – 20 MW
Located on an 80.9-hectare site southeast of Kyaukse, Myit Thar Township, the Taungdaw Gwin project was completed on [date], and is the second mega-scale solar PV project by Gold Energy Company Limited (the first being the 30-MW Thapyay Wa project – also in Manadalay district).
Taungdaw Gwin involved a foundation of 6,807 piles to enable solar tracking so as to maximize PV energy captured by 45,980 solar panels. The project can generate 25.1 MW of direct current, or 22.9 MW of alternating current, per year.
About 14% of the energy generated will go towards the nearby Kyaukse town, while the remainder will be linked to the Thapyay Wa substation and connected to the national grid via 6.05 miles of 33-kV transmission line, also built by GPE.
With domestic energy consumption forecast to grow between 15-17% per year, solar power has been identified as a potentially significant source of renewable energy. While solar PV energy had been introduced for several years in Myanmar it accounted for about 1% of the country’s installed energy generation capacity as at 2020.
The solar PV tenders announced by MOEE form the country’s largest-ever tender exercise for mega-scale solar projects (between 30 MW to 50 MW each) with a combined potential new capacity of 1.06 gigawatts (GW). However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 disrupted business travel and the supply and raised the costs of imported components such as PV panels and equipment. The operating environment was also affected by an economic slowdown and domestic issues. As a result, most of the 28 successful bidders did not complete their projects.
Despite these immense challenges, Clean Power Energy Co., Ltd completed the Thapyay Wa (30 MW) project – the first among the 28 eventual bidders to do so. Commissioned in December 2021, the project marked a major milestone in our involvement in large-scale solar PV projects. This achievement was followed by the completion of our second solar PV project in Taungdaw Gwin in November 2022.