Oct 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Yuthana Praiwan Bangkok Post, Thailand

The Energy Ministry has revised up the proportion of renewable energy in total energy consumption in 2011 to 14 percent from 11 percent, says minister Piyasvasti Amranand.

The previous target was quite conservative compared with the 20 percent share renewable sources contributed in other countries, he said.

The old target amounted to 9,830 kilotonnes of oil equivalent (ktoe) per year while the new one, approved by the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) last week, targets 11,311 ktoe in 2011.

Last year, total electricity generated from renewable energy, including heat and alternative fuels, accounted for 6.6 percent of all annual energy consumption.

The change of target is in line with a study on renewable energy by the ministry, which found strong potential in this type of energy and predicted the upward trend of oil prices would continue over the next several years.

In addition to renewable energy, natural gas for vehicles (NGV) is the type of energy for which the consumption target was significantly lifted, to 4,384 ktoe from 2,867 ktoe in the original plan, due mainly to its replacement of diesel in public transport vehicles and trucks.

PTT Plc, the state-owned energy conglomerate, reported that the transport sector used 765 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) of NGV in September, more than double the 360 mmscf used a year earlier.

Thanks to heavy promotion, NGV has been increasingly popular among motorists. NGV kits have been installed in 42,000 passenger cars and the number of NGV stations has grown to 140 today.

Biomass and biogas projects, which use solid waste from the farm sector, municipal solid waste and waste water, in generating electricity and methane gas, seem to show the highest potential, with the target raised to 4,845 ktoe from 4,600 ktoe.

The biodiesel and ethanol target remains unchanged at 2,000 ktoe.

A combination of NGV, biodiesel and ethanol would replace more petrol and diesel, accounting for 23.2 percent of total consumption in 2011 from 0.5 percent now. The target for solar cells, wind farms and hydropower remain unchanged at 40 ktoe.

In another development, the Energy Ministry will spend 85 million baht on subsidising the cost of 800,000 energysaving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to replace conventional light bulbs.

Dr Piyasvasti estimated that phasing out conventional light bulbs would help save a total of 310 megawatts, worth 2.8 billion baht a year.

The Board of Investment has also granted privileges to eight CFL investment projects in Thailand to promote local CFL production and replace imports. The Thai Industrial Standard Institute (TISI) has already developed an industrial standard code to prevent substandard CFL products from China.