Thai military feels the heat over plan for solar farm

With up to 2,700 hours of sunshine a year, the “land of smiles” Thailand has much to be happy about.

Bright though the future of solar power appears to be in the country, the sector is showing signs of stalling and Thailand has fallen behind its neighbour Vietnam, which is now the biggest solar energy producer in Southeast Asia. While Vietnam produces seven times more than Thailand’s 2,249MW-capacity across its operational and planned solar plants, according to the Stimson Centre think tank in Washington, it pales in comparison to China, the world’s largest solar power producer.

Critics blame the lack of progress on errors in government policymaking; rural areas have found themselves largely bypassed by the solar revolution, while even in cities, individual households have found that installing solar panels simply doesn’t pay.

Into this mix has stepped an unlikely – and to many, unwelcome – saviour: the Royal Thai Army, which announced in January that it would carry out a feasibility study, in partnership with the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), into the construction of a 30,000MW solar farm on military land in the western Kanchanaburi province. The capacity, if achieved, will be more than double Thailand’s solar energy target set for 2037.