Wider use of non-fossil fuel
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Thailand yesterday raised its target for non-fossil fuel energy sources to 13.9 gigawatts from 9.2GW under the revised Alternative Energy Development Plan (2012-21) and finally announced incentives for solar rooftop producers.
The National Energy Policy Council endorsed the revised targets of wind power to 1GW from 1GW, solar power to 3GW from 2GW, biomass to 4.8GW from 3.6GW, garbage to 400 megawatts from 160MW, biogas to 3.6GW from 600MW and hydropower to 324MW from 1.6GW. Biogas was raised by 3GW from Napier grass, while hydropower was cut drastically.
The council also approved the Energy Ministry’s proposal to offer a 25-year feed-in tariff (FIT) to sellers of solar rooftop power until next year.
The rates will be Bt6.69 per unit for household rooftops with lower than 10-kilowatt capacity, Bt6.55 for SMEs producing 10-250KW and Bt6.16 for mid-sized and large factories producing 250-1,000KW. This incentive will add 50 satang per unit to electricity bills.
The council set the target to be purchased from solar rooftop producers at 200MW this year, of which half will be from households and half from SMEs. They will start feeding the power grid in December.
The National Energy Regulator will draw up the power purchase regulations and tax breaks on equipment purchases for the producers.
