Alternative Energy: Key Role in Thailand’s Future Power

            In 2011, Thailand has encountered numerous economic challenges. Energy management has emerged as a challenging issue due to surging demand for energy amid the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa that has fueled persistently high global oil prices. The recent catastrophe in Japan, that has devastated a nuclear power complex, has also complicated efforts by the government, private sector and general public alike toward the energy situation.

            Alternative energy has been increasingly mentioned as a potential source to replace the fossil fuels. Some businesses have been keen on investing in power generation using alternative energy technologies. However, some restrictions in alternative energy still exist, including costly technology and the availability of resources for production. The future of alternative energy also lies in the government energy policy. However, the government by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has drafted a plan to develop the power production capacity of the year 2010 – 2030 (PDP 2010), to create the stability in the country’s electricity supply. If Thailand still maintains the power production capacity from the natural gas at the current level, it would be able to produce the electricity from the natural gas for 28 years only, which is very vulnerable situation to the electricity production of Thailand.

That plan has set a goal for Thailand to reduce the natural gas reliance within 20 years and distributed the energy sources in the electricity production more by focusing on the energy resources from the imported coal, nuclear energy, renewable energy in the form of commercial alternative energy (consisting of energy sources from the wind, solar, garbage, biomass, biogas) and hydro energy respectively, but the alternative energy has the limitations as well. The electricity production from each type of alternative energy has the different strengths and limitations. The energy sources from the wind and solar are highly potential and supported by the government, but the efficiency of electricity supply is low, requires the large capital and should be at the appropriate area. Regarding the biomass and biogas, the efficiency of electricity supply is better but the potentiality was already used so much which may face the raw material shortage in the future. This problem is similar to the energy from the garbage. Although there are the garbage plentifully, there is a few community where has much garbage to produce the electricity, and may have an obstacle about the garbage collection and the support from the government. Therefore, the entrepreneurs, who are interested to produce the electricity from the renewable energies, should consider both advantages and disadvantages of each type of the energy source to support a decision to invest. The prospects for the alternative energy industry may also hinge on global energy prices; especially the fossil fuels, which the higher prices will make the investments in the alternative energy more attractive.

Kasikorn Research Center