Joint meet on criteria for participants in solar scheme

Among those taking part will be the National Village and Urban Community Fund Office, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the Provincial Electricity Authority, Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal said yesterday.
One of the likely criteria is that participating communities must be situated in favourable locations, such as those with exposure to strong sunlight and access to power-transmission lines.
Pongsak said he wanted to see the communities owning the plants themselves, and that private firms should not be allowed to take part in the project, which is designed to help communities generate income.
The feed-in tariff (FIT) for the community plants is attractive enough to encourage financial institutions to lend to them, he maintained.
The FIT for community power plants is Bt9.75 per unit during the first three years, Bt6.50 from the fourth to the 10th year, and Bt4.50 from the 11th to 25th year.
The solar plants are expected to start feeding power next year, and the project is expected to generate income of Bt79.5 million per community throughout 25 years.
The ministry will advise the communities on how to seek funding and the standard of the equipment to be used in plant establishment.
Pongsak estimates that a community will need to invest only Bt60 million per megawatt, because of the declining cost of solar panels.

Investment boom
Solar-power industrialists expect investment in solar panels and related businesses to boom after the National Energy Policy Council recently increased the target for overall solar power production to 3 gigawatts, from 2GW, as well as announcing the 25-year FIT for rooftop solar panels and community-based solar plants.
The long-awaited announcement of the attractive FIT rate will attract a great number of producers and pave the way for growth of solar-panel and related businesses, they predict.
The council raised its target for non-fossil-fuel energy sources to 13.9GW from 9.2GW under the revised Alternative Energy Development Plan (2012-21).
It endorsed the revised targets of wind power to 1.8GW from 1.2GW, solar power to 3GW from 2GW, biomass to 4.8GW from 3.6GW, garbage-based power to 400MW from 160MW, biogas to 3.6GW from 600MW, and hydropower to 324MW from 1.6GW.
The biogas target was increased sharply because of the use of Napier grass, while the hydropower target was cut significantly. Of the 1GW increase in the solar-power target, 800MW will be from community-based solar-power plants and the remainder from rooftop panels.