THAIWEA HOLDS FIRST WIND POWER WORKSHOP

The first ThaiWEA workshop was held on 27 June 2018. We were delighted to welcome attendees from EGAT, PEA, DEDE, ALRO and ThaiWEA members. This workshop covered the main topics for the wind indestry in Thailand and was intended to send the message to members, especially Government agencies, that wind energy in Thailand is a valuable growth indestry. ThaiWEA plans to hold similar workshops each month.

The workshop discussed wind resources, restrictions and potential MW per regions. Specifically, ThaiWEA would like to maximize the potential area for wind development, with due consideration to safe exclusion areas and ALRO area where people can still work around wind farm. In order to unlock this issue, ThaiWEA needs to work directly with direct government agencies to address their concerns.

Next, there was an update on wind turbine technology trends: increasing tower heights, blade length and generator MW. The cost of energy has dropped significantly in 10 years mainly due to economic of scale. This is resulting in higher regional capacity factors of up to 20-30%.

This was followed by, ‘expected cost of energy and investment, with breakdowns of expected costs per region. Actual costs depend on topography, distance from port, distance from grid if the project is onshore or offshore. ThaiWEA’s current position is that at the wind FIT should be at least 3 THB/kwh.

Finally the workshop ended with suggestions for an improved PPA process. The intention was to propose a process which will facilitate development of wind farms in Thailand.