The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) has just announced that Japanese electricity supplier Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) is completing work on a 22-megawatt (MW) rooftop solar installation in Thailand that will be the largest rooftop solar project by capacity in the world, when completed.
KEPCO is working on the project in the Amata City Rayong industrial park, southwest of Bangkok, on a tire factory owned by Japanese firm Sumitomo Rubber Industries. The electricity generated by the rooftop installation will be used to power the factory. This is in the context of Sumitomo’s strategy to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions.
The BOI is a Thai government body that aims to encourage foreign investment in Thailand and is optimistic about the future of the energy sector. It expects the KEPCO project to be completed in 2025 and also highlighted that, in the first six months of 2023, 186 of the 195 power generation applications made to the BOI were linked to the renewable sector.
In effect, investment in renewable energy is key for Thailand’s green growth, as the country remains largely reliant on fossil fuels. In 2022, natural gas accounted for 114.6 Terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity production, the most of any power source. The second-most utilized source was coal, accounting for 35.5 TWh of electricity, ahead of renewables, which registered 21.9 TWh.
(Source: PV Tech)
