EGCO Engineering and Service Company Limited or ESCO, within EGCO Group, recently entered into the shareholders’ agreement with B.Grimm Power Service (Laem Chabang) Company Limited, a subsidiary of B.Grimm Power Public Company Limited or BGRIM which is one of the pioneers in the largest private power generation industry in the country, to jointly invest in solar panel  tester development. The collaboration is a major move to address the rising demand for solar energy in Thai industrial sector. 

Mr. Suthisak Kaewmeesang, Managing Director of ESCO within EGCO Group, said that ESCO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EGCO Group, and has more than 29 years of experience and expertise in operation and maintenance (O&M), engineering, and training for power, petrochemical, and industrial plants. The two companies have signed shareholders’ agreement to establish a joint venture that will invest in the development of efficiency testers of solar panels which are longer than 2 meters. This marks a major cooperation in enhancing engineering innovation and knowledge to support and further expand the solar panel efficiency testing business. Under this agreement, ESCO will jointly invest and provide related equipment, such as testing equipment, tools, software, and experts. The company believes that this cooperation will increase competitiveness and create added value to all stakeholders. 

Mr. Don Tayatan, BGRIM's Executive Vice President - Customer Relations and Operation Management 2, said that both industrial sectors and households have become more interested in renewable energy. This is clearly seen from the significant increase of the number of solar panels being installed at industrial plants, industrial estates, property projects, etc. Solar power directly addresses the rising concerns over energy cost management, consumption efficiency, sustainable development and environmental impact. BGRIM, with its commitment to renewable energy development, is particularly interested in enhancing solar panel efficiency, which enables the company to better address customers’ need for efficient alternative energy consumption.

More and more solar panels that are longer than 2 meters have been used recently. The CES Solar Cells Testing Center (CSSC), however, cannot support testing for such long panels. This cooperation will lead to the development of large solar panel testing facilities. This will be the only solar panel testing facility in Thailand and its neighboring countries. BGRIM, meanwhile, will support the investment and procurement of the testing equipment to boost the success of this cooperation project.

Associate Professor Dr. Chakrit Techaapaikoon, a lecturer at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), added that KMUTT has a clear commitment to technology development and promotion. The university has been continuously published academic work and created innovations that best address the specific needs of the business and industrial sectors. Under this cooperation, KMUTT has assigned experienced academics and students to work on this development project, including an operation and maintenance system for the testing tools and equipment. The ISO/IEC17025 certified testing process of the university will be used to support the development of quality and efficiency of alternative energy. In addition, this project will enable the university to accumulate more experience and cooperation with leading partners, which also opens new opportunities for its people development.

Apart from joint investment in the solar panel testing tool development, the three partners will work closely together on marketing and promotion, raising awareness of related parties on the availability of tester and testing service at the CSSC. The testing machine will be operated and maintained by CSSC staff. (Both the center and the staff have obtained international certification.) This cooperation will last for 10 years.

The changing types of energy needed have encouraged a large number of organizations to reduce CO2 emissions in the long run and switch to renewable energy in order to achieve net zero. Solar rooftops have become one of the highly popular renewable energy sources because they can be installed and used at household level as well as at the industrial level. As a result, the number of solar cell producers and new technology have been increasing continuously. This also drives the demand for efficient testing tools, which will enhance trust among solar panel users for their safety and efficiency. At the same time, this will encourage overall renewable energy consumption in Thailand.