Thai Solar Research Project

Thai Solar Transitions#

Brief Project Description: Solar Energy Transitions Investment (Thailand)#

Background#

Thailand has immense solar resources. If per capita electricity consumption in Thailand were to grow to the same level as Singapore’s (10 MWh per person per year), the country could supply all domestic electricity by covering 0.4% of the country (2,200km²) in solar farms. Rooftop, carparking, and other solar lowers the total amount of land needed.

Solar generation is cheap compared to fossil fuel based generation. Moving to renewable generation will be a key step for Thailand in meeting its carbon neutrality and net zero commitments at low cost.

Project Purpose#

To take advantage of Thai solar resources, the overall purpose of this project was to work with Thailand’s Department of Alternative Thailand seize the available opportunities and accelerate its transition to a solar-fed electricity grid while at the same time benefiting from the cost reductions of moving to solar.

Project Goals#

Within the overall project purpose, are the following key goals that the project focused on:

1. Estimate the solar PV, wind, transmission interconnection, and energy storage requirements for fully decarbonised electricity in Thailand, including for fully electrified transport, heating/cooling, and industry (which will double electricity requirements);
2. Determine the technical and economic potential for rooftop PV, floating PV (onshore and offshore), agrivoltaics, ground-mounted PV, and off-river (closed loop) pumped hydro in Thailand1, and demonstrate that this meets the requirements in Objective 1;
3. Identify prospective investment scale, investment sources, governance, technical standards, and regulatory frameworks that would allow rapid uptake of solar PV in Thailand through a comparison with Australia;
4. Develop the capacity of policymakers and technical staff so that they can learn from the Australian experience, select good-quality sites for solar PV and pumped hydro, and understand the policy changes that could lead to the development of a stable grid dominated by solar PV.

Project Outputs#

Five key reports were prepared during the course of the project. The contents of the key reports were summarised in communications outputs to make them more accessible. This included short videos as well as a policy brief. Below are brief explanations of, and links to, the videos, policy brief and key project reports.

Communications Outputs#

Short Explainer videos:

• Grid management
• Data & forecasting
• Rooftop and utility-scale solar
• Storage (to support a solar-fed grid)

Project Reports#

1. State of knowledge report – Regulatory environment , focusing on:
   • Mapping the Thai governance and regulatory environment,
   • Detailing relevant Thai Ministries, Departments, Agencies and State-owned enterprises that are involved in the construction, operations, and regulation, of solar facilities.
2. Analysis report – Regulatory environment , focusing on:
   • Identifying the policy, regulatory and capacity barriers that prevent the optimal uptake of solar electricity generation.
   • Measures that Thailand could consider implementing to reduce or remove these barriers.
3. Technical standards report , focusing on:
   • Summarising current Thai standards applying to the connectivity of solar generation and the electricity grid, and
   • Providing recommendation for Thailand to consider for improving compatibility of solar generation with the Thai transmission grid.
4. Interim research report , covering:
   • Energy balance analysis,
   • GIS based assessment of technical resource potential for solar PV,
   • Improved solar/wind heat map analysis with optimised new transmission proposals, and
   • Pumped hydro resource potential
5. Final modelling report , including:
   • Updated solar PV/wind heat maps, including exploring new transmission options
   • Updated FIRM energy balance model for Thailand
   • Updated Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Atlases for Thailand

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