ENVIRONMENT: Solar Power Project Makes Thailand a Leader

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 13 2003 (IPS) - When Thailand’s largest solar power plant begins producing energy in March next year, it will place this country in a new spotlight as the leader of this form of alternative energy in South-east Asia.

What impresses local environmentalists is that achievement comes courtesy of the government – the plant being built in northern Mae Hong Son province is the work of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).

”It is a sign that the government is interested in looking into renewable energy sources like solar energy,” says Jiragorn Gajaseni, who heads the South-east Asia office of Greenpeace, the global environmental lobby.

By contrast, Malaysia and Singapore offer little signs of going down this road. And in Indonesia, which is an oil producer, the idea of harvesting the sun’s rays for energy is remote. Yet that does not mean the plant in northern Thailand marks a clear shift in the country’s energy policy that remains dependent on natural gas and hydroelectric power, adds Jiragon. ”It is more symbolic.”

The Mae Hong Son solar power plant will have the capacity to generate only five megawatts, bringing the country’s total solar energy capacity to 10 megawatts by 2004.

According to Jiragorn, the government needs to increase its commitment manifold if it intends to make solar energy more than just a fringe achievement in the country.

That stands out in light of Thailand’s energy sources that produce an estimated 22,604 megawatts in recent years. Natural gas is the dominant source, contributing over 70 percent, followed by hydroelectric power from dams, at over 13 percent, and then oil, at over five percent.

Currently, renewable energy, which includes biomass, small-scale hydroelectric plants and solar power, contributes above only one percent of Thailand’s energy mix.

Thailand’s energy consumption is estimated at 1,352 kilowatt-hours of electricity per capita, as opposed to Singapore, which has the region’s highest per capita consumer of electricity at 6,541 kilowatt-hours per capita, according to the 2002 U.N. ‘Human Development Report.’

The main sectors that demand energy are industries, businesses and the residential sector, states ‘Positive Energy Choices,’ a study done by Greenpeace about Thailand’s energy scenario. The industrial sector gobbles up over 45 percent, while businesses demand 24 percent and the residential sector, 22 percent.

”The energy demands are gradually increasing and the government must look for alternatives to fossil fuels,” says Suphakij Nuntavorakarn, an energy policy researcher with the Sustainable Energy Network of Thailand, a non-governmental group. This message has also been driven home by the spike in oil prices due to the threat of a U.S.-led war in Iraq. Oil prices, according to market analysts, have gone up by more than 20 percent since the beginning of this year.

The Thai government is feeling the heat, because it controls the price of oil here through a subsidy scheme.

”The government is considering expanding borrowed funds for subsidising oil prices from 6 billion baht (139.9 million U.S. dollars) to 8 billion baht (186.5 million dollars), as higher-than-expected world oil prices take their toll,” the English-language daily ‘The Nation’ stated Thursday.

Yet Suphakij says there is little support among the government’s energy policy makers to make a substantial shift to move Thailand away from its entrenched dependence on fossil fuels for energy.

This position has been ensured by the strong fossil-fuel lobby in the country, adds Jiragorn of Greenpeace. ”The energy lobby has traditionally been a powerful force, and you must include the gas sector here.”

That is also reflected in Thailand’s existing energy plan. ”It has not given serious recognition to renewable energy sources like solar power. There is a strong bias towards fossil fuel,” says Suphakij.

Jiragorn finds that unfortunate, since Thailand has the ideal conditions and the capacity to develop a substantial sector generating solar power.

”If planned properly, backed by political will and funds, Thailand has the potential of producing 30 percent of energy through solar power by 2020,” he says.

To buttress their case, environmentalists here are pointing to the measures taken in India, the only Asian country that has a government department dedicated to develop and supply of renewable energy.

India’s energy plan is ”to achieve a 10 percent share of electricity from renewables by 2012,” states ‘Solar Generation,’ a joint study by Greenpeace and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association.

The Thai government, on the contrary, has only plans of increasing its solar power production to 30 megawatts by 2006.

Most of that, in fact, will be used in Mae Hong Son province as part of EGAT’s plans to supply the region with eco-friendly energy, to fit in with the picture of ecotourism that is being promoted in the area.

This, however, has not deterred environmentalists here from lobbying for a change in energy policy, including stepping up efforts to garner support from international funding agencies.

”We are appealing to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to stop promoting the supply of dirty energy technology, and support clean energy initiatives,” says Jiragorn.