Thailand’s Ministry of Energy has announced plans to expand the role of renewables and coal in the domestic power mix, in addition to increasing opportunities for small-scale electricity producers.

In early July Siri Jirapongphan, minister of energy, said the revised Power Development Plan (PDP), due to be released in September, would place greater emphasis on renewable energy, targeting an increase in the share of clean energy from 10 per cent to 30 per cent within the next 15 years.

Targets under the current PDP, which came into force in 2014, looked to increase renewables’ share to 20 per cent by 2035, with 35 per cent of energy to be sourced from gas-fired power plants, 30 per cent from coal, 20 per cent from neighbours and 5 per cent from nuclear.

To help reach this goal, the new PDP aims to encourage the development of very small power producers (VSPPs) – which have a generation capacity of less than 1MW – via a range of initiatives.

Published in The Borneo Post, 19th August, 2018

New strategy aims to diversify electricity generation in Thailand