สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 30 No. 3 Jul.-Sep. 2005 726 The Role of Thai Energy Policy and Strategies in Sustainable Development • Wind Energy There are currently two main types of windmills used in Thailand, according to their applications--one is for agricultural water pumping and the other is for electricity generation. So far, a 192-kW generation system from windmills has been installed in Phuket province in the south of Thai- land. Besides, wind turbines have been installed as part of the hybrid systems (PV/wind turbine/diesel en- gine) at Tarutao and Phu Kradueng National Parks with a capacity of 10 kW and 2.5 kW respectively. Given the government policy to promote renewable energy utiliza- tion in power generation, it is pro- jected that by the year 2011, 100MW of capacity can be generated by wind energy. However, due to expected associated high investment costs, support from the government in the form of subsidy, for example, may be necessary. Moreover, power generation of no greater than 150 kWusing wind turbines will be promoted. R&Dwill be supported on the production of wind turbines for power generation of no greater than 150 kW, based on the wind energy potential in Thai- land. In addition, demonstration and promotion of domestically produced wind turbine installation for power generation will be carried out, totaling 100 systems with a total ge- nerating capacity of 15 MW. • Biomass Energy In the power generation sec- tor, power producers, in the form of “Small Power Producers (or SPPs)” using renewable energy as fuel in- stead of fossil fuel, have continuously been supported by the government, which can be summarized into four phases up to now. Phase I: Started in 1992, with a view to encouraging the private sec- tor participation in power generation of the country, promotion has been made on power purchase from SPPs by the Electricity GeneratingAutho- rity of Thailand (EGAT). The result has been satisfactory. Various SPPs, using either fossil fuel such as coal and natural gas or renewable energy such as bagasse, rice husk, wood chips and palm shells, have proposed sale of capacity to the grid system. Phase II: In May 2001, the govern- ment initiated the pricing subsidy from the ENCON Fund in the form of energy payment adder for the capacity generated by renewable energy at a maximum rate of 0.36 baht/kWh, for a five-year period. To date, 19 SPPs using renewable en- ergy are in the pipeline under this program, accounting for a total pro- posed sale of 235 MW of electricity to the grid. The program has resulted in fuel diversification used for power generation, including hydropower. Phase III: In May 2002, to further promote the use of renewable energy for power generation by small-scale (less than 1MW) generators, the Thai government approved the Regula- tions for the Purchase of Power from Very Small Renewable Energy Power Producers (VSPPs). Phase IV: Currently, given the re- quirement on the Renewable Port- folio Standard (RPS) that 5% of en- ergy to be dispatched into the grid system by new power plants must be generated by renewable energy, a total capacity of about 100 MW generated by biomass is expected through this RPS measure. By the year 2011, a target has been set to make use of wood-chips, firewood or agricultural wastes to generate about 955 MW of electric- ity, which can replace the use of about 3,441 ktoe of commercial energy. Biogas Technology In addition to the use of biomass residues for power generation, wastewater containing organic mat- ters from livestock farms and in- dustries has increasingly been used as a potential source of biogas energy. Biogas systems using anaerobic di- gestion techniques such as Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) and Fixed Film technology have in- creasingly been established nation- wide especially for pig farms and food processing industries. In ge- neral, the biogas systems can be locally produced and installed. The biogas technology has been rapidly and widely accepted in both large and small-sized livestock farms chiefly because the production of biogas helps reduce not only the pol- lution problems but also the energy cost by substituting the on-site use