Thailand bets on rooftop solar to guard against LNG price shocks

BANGKOK, Sept 2 : Thailand will help 1 million households install 5 gigawatts of rooftop solar panels within a year to shield citizens from soaring energy prices driven by the Iran war, Energy Minister Akanat Promphan said on Wednesday.

The move, financed by a 200 billion baht ($6.01 billion) energy transition emergency fund, is the latest example of a major Asian liquefied natural gas importer using rooftop solar to hedge against rising prices, after the Philippines and Bangladesh.    Renewables including solar make up about 10 per cent of Thailand's power generation, while gas accounts for more than 60 per cent, government data for the six months through June showed.    Over a quarter of the gas used for electricity generation is imported, according to energy think-tank IEEFA. Thailand buys half its LNG on the spot market, Kpler data shows, making it more vulnerable to shocks such as the surge in LNG prices after the U.S. and Israel launched the war with Iran six months ago.     "It (using the emergency fund) is about the energy transition, because otherwise we'll be subjected to what's happening in the Middle East forever," Akanat told Reuters.    GOVERNMENT INCENTIVES FOR AMBITIOUS SOLAR TARGETS

The 5 GW target will be included in Thailand's long-term power development plan, a roadmap for electricity generation for the next 25 years, which will be released next month, Akanat said.    If the target is achieved, it would more than double Thailand's small-scale solar capacity, estimated at 3.6 GW by end-2025 by energy modelling firm TransitionZero. Residential rooftop solar accounts for 1.4 GW of that capacity.    Thailand was Southeast Asia's largest solar adopter until 2018, but installations slowed after incentives waned and it was subsequently overtaken by Vietnam late last decade, according to TransitionZero.    The government plans to provide financial support of 50,000 baht ($1,500) per household along with loans for the installation of rooftop solar panels, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said last month.       The government is also seeking new sources of domestic gas in offshore fields and to strike new long-term LNG purchase agreements to diversify its import mix, Akanat said.

PTTEP, the exploration and production arm of the state-owned energy giant PTT, has set aside a budget for exploring new gas fields in the Andaman Sea and Myanmar, he said.