Green Energy would benefit remote areas But technogy costs may prove drawback
Aranee Jaimsin
Promoting renewable energy and relevant technologies through niche markets in remote areas where electricity transmission lines cannot be laid would be more productive than focusing on nationwide projects, say experts.
However, production costs for renewable technology are higher than for conventional energy. This could significantly discourage investment in renewable energy production and technology, said Chumnong Srapipatana, energy chairman of the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment at King Mongkut's University of Technology in Thon Buri.
Nevertheless, renewable energy could be the answer to rising demand for electricity in areas such as islands and mountainous provinces, he said.
Biomass and solar thermal power were the two most suitable types of renewable energy for Thailand, said
Mr Chumnong.
He said many food-processing factories and sugar mills produced sufficient biomass volume for generating energy
for their own use or to sell to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).
Currently, the price of biomass energy is competitive if producers and afford the raw material," he said.
Despite its affordable price, solar thermal power, which is designed to heat water in sunny locations, is not popular yet because the initial investment in the technology is relatively high, and it would take a long time to break even. Furthermore, the technology required regular maintenance, said Mr Chumnong.
He recommends solar thermal power for hotels, hospitals and manufacturing plants in remote areas.
He said the government would need to better encourage the private sector to invest in the production of renewable energy. He added that when technological development this field reached saturation point, it could be too late for the country to follow international energy conservation trends.
Soft loans and a clean development mechanism (CDM) were two tools to encourage investment in this area, he said.
"Investment in renewable-energy production is costly but, in the long term, it could lessen national dependency on imported oil.. and secure our energy supply." said Mr Chumnong.
The university is joining with CMP Media (Thailand) Co to stage Entech Pollutec Asia and Renewable Energy Asia 2006 at Bitec from Thursday to Sunday. Around 200 suppliers of renewable-energy technology and other experts will attend.
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