1. Clean energy resources, development goals and key areas in Thailand

According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2017, by the end of 2016, Thailand's proven coal reserves were 1.063 billion tons, with a reserve-production ratio of 63 years. Proven oil reserves are less than 50 million tons, and the reserve-production ratio is 2.3 years. The proved reserves of natural gas are 200 billion cubic meters and the reserve-production ratio is 5.4 years. In 2016, Thailand imported 8.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas through pipelines from Myanmar and 4.2 billion cubic meters of LIQUEFIED natural gas from Oman and Qatar. Thailand is relatively short of oil and natural gas, compared with abundant coal.

In 2015, the Thai government put forward the Alternative Energy Development Plan (2015-2036), which plans to reach 19.68 gigawatts (GW) of installed renewable energy by 2036 and increase the proportion of renewable energy in power generation to about 20%. [1]

Figure 1: Renewable Energy Development Plan in Thailand (in MEGAwatts)

Different from other countries, the Thai government has set the priority of renewable energy power grid according to different categories of renewable energy power generation, which are: garbage power generation, biomass power generation, biogas/wastewater generation, small hydropower, biogas of energy crops, wind power, photovoltaic power generation, and geothermal power generation. When the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT) announced its new plan for renewable power grid connection, the renewable power plants would have to be tested in order of priority, in addition to competing fiercely for feed-in tariff subsidies. When the grid is running at full capacity, for example, lower-priority renewable power cannot be connected to the grid for sale, even though the combined tariff is lower. [2]

Table 1: Grid priority for renewable energy in Thailand

According to the Statistics of the International Renewable Energy Agency, the total installed capacity of renewable energy in Thailand in 2016 was 9,680 MEGAwatts, including 3,573 megawatts of hydropower, 3,446 megawatts of biomass, 2,154 megawatts of solar energy and 507 megawatts of wind energy.

Table 2: Installed Renewable energy Capacity in Vietnam 2014-2016 (in MEGAwatts)

Source: IRENA, RENEWABLE CAPACITY STATISTICS 2017, 2017.

Ii. Main areas and representative projects of China-Thailand clean energy cooperation

At present, the clean energy cooperation between China and Thailand have focused on production and photovoltaic power generation, wind power, photovoltaic components and garbage power generation, the Chinese side of the head of the main cooperative enterprises are science and technology, China in turbine, neutral tenghui, trina solar, yingli green, and hangzhou jinjiang, China united engineering, electrician, three peak environment, China sinoma energy conservation, energy huaxi, yunnan water, And environmental protection and so on.

(1) Wind power

China is currently involved in four wind power projects in Thailand. First, THEPPANA wind power project. This project is goldwind's first successfully connected project in Thailand's wind power market, and also the first commercial wind power project integrated into THE PEA power grid in Thailand. Goldenwind provided gw109/2500 low-wind direct drive permanent magnet units and central monitoring SCADA system for the wind farm for the project, which was completed in July 2013 and successfully integrated into Thailand's National PEA power grid. [4] The second is the Chaiyaphum Wind power project. This project is the third wind power project built by Goldwind in Thailand, and the second project developed in cooperation with Thailand EGCO New Energy Company. It is the largest wind farm built by Goldwind in Thailand. With an installed capacity of 80MW, the project adopts 32 GW121/2500HH120M flexible towers and is equipped with independently developed electronic control system. The first unit has been successfully connected to the grid in October 2016. [5] Third, GNP wind power EPC project. The project is located in TambonHuai State, Dan Khun Thot, Nakhon Ratchasima Province, Thailand. The owner of the project is Thailand GNP (GREENOVATION POWER LIMITED), and the Central South Survey, Design and Research Institute of POWER China Group undertook the construction [6]. With a total installed capacity of 67.5 MW, the project has installed 33 Gamesa G114 wind turbines, including 18 2.0MW wind turbines and 15 2.1MW wind turbines. The hub height is 153 meters, making it the highest inland steel tower in the world. The project started construction on July 4, 2016, and is planned to be connected to Thailand's national grid through a 115 kV booster station. [7] Fourth, Rantavon Wind Power EPC project. The project is located in Khorat Province, northeast Thailand, with an installed capacity of 24MW. The project is constructed by Power China International Engineering Co., LTD. The contract was signed on September 6, 2016. The work includes the supply, transportation, insurance, supervision, installation, commissioning, trial operation and related maintenance of all the civil engineering and equipment of the power station during the warranty period. [8]

(2) Photovoltaic module production and photovoltaic power generation

Chinese companies such as Zhongli Tenghui, Trina Solar and Yingli Green have invested and set up factories in Thai-China Rayong Industrial Park, enjoying local corporate income tax exemption, import tax exemption on machinery and raw materials and other preferential policies, which have reduced production and import and export costs and created a lot of local jobs.

4.jpg

Data Source:

Solar photovoltaic (pv) network: the lee teng across 500 mw in Thailand factory production smoothly ", November 13, 2015, http://solar.ofweek.com/2015-11/ART-260009-8460-29026708.html.

Today's headline: "trina solar Thailand factory in operation", on March 29, 2016, http://www.toutiao.com/i6267412438568665602/.

Solar photovoltaic (pv) net: "yingli will build Thailand 300 mw components factory", January 13, 2016, http://solar.ofweek.com/2016-01/ART-260009-8460-29053124.html.

In addition, in 2014, China Yingli, Together with The International Engineering Company of China Hydropower Consulting Group, Hebei Electric Power Survey and Design Institute, and Thailand Wattanasuk Engineering, formed a consortium and won the EPC contract of 5 MW photovoltaic power station of Thailand Power Production Bureau. With a total investment of about 631 million baht, the project is the only state-level solar pv demonstration project led by the Thai government. [9]

(3) Garbage power generation

Garbage power generation is an important direction of clean energy cooperation between China and Thailand. At present, Hangzhou Jinjiang, China United Engineering, China Electrical Engineering, Sanfeng Environment, Sinomai Energy Conservation, West China Energy, Yunnan Water, and Chuangguan Environmental Protection and other Chinese enterprises have participated in waste power generation cooperation in Thailand through investment and acquisition, project contracting, operation and maintenance.

Data Source:

Sanitation technology, Chinese enterprises into the garbage power generation market in southeast Asia, May 20, 2016, http://www.cn-hw.net/html/china/201605/53399.html.

Polaris network: environmental protection material and energy saving in the first general contract of biomass power plant in Thailand signed ", June 30, 2014, http://news.bjx.com.cn/html/20140630/523030.shtml.

Key factors of China's clean energy cooperation in Thailand

With clean energy cooperation between China and asean countries other than the garbage power generation project related cooperation is the highlight of cooperation on clean energy, which is one of the important reasons for the Thai government for the country attaches great importance to the garbage power generation, the garbage power generation in clean energy power first priority access to the Internet, it is the Thai government for garbage power generation attaches great importance to and policy guarantee, The number of garbage power generation cooperation projects between China and Thailand is significantly higher than other ASEAN countries. From this perspective, the analysis of key areas of clean energy development in the host countries, as well as specific policy guarantees and preferential policies are important factors for Chinese enterprises to strengthen clean energy cooperation with belt and Road countries.

Moreover, with China's domestic labor costs, land costs, production costs, such as workshop, the cost is increased, Chinese enterprises can find like Thailand have related tax and other preferential policies, and to invest in countries with lower production costs, not only can reduce the production cost, and can be established by investing in open country, in the form of clean energy markets.

Third, technical expertise is required to adapt to the particular climatic conditions of the host country. For example, in the implementation process of GNP wind power project, due to Thailand's tropical location, temperature cracks appeared in the bulk concrete of fan foundation. The project department set up a special foundation crack control team, and finally controlled the foundation temperature crack thoroughly by monitoring, investigating, adjusting the water cooling mode, adding ice at continuous intervals and delaying the water cooling cycle. [10]

Fourth, the ability to properly allocate and plan limited resources is needed. Such as Thailand's GNP project in the process of hoisting under ultra-high overweight equipment large-scale sea inland transportation coordination, ultra-high tower drum under the condition of various eddy current resonance control tower drum, limited platform within the scope of the equipment in operation at the same time, such as multiple problems, reasonable distribution of limited resources to ensure the lift work within the time limit for a project is completed. [11]

The attachment

[1] Thailand Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, "Alternative Energy Development Plan 2015", October 2016, www.dede.go.th/download/files/AEDP2015_Final_version.pdf.

[2] Thailand Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, "Alternative Energy Development Plan 2015", October 2016, www.dede.go.th/download/files/AEDP2015_Final_version.pdf.

[3] According to RENEWABLE CAPACITY STATISTICS 2017, from 2014 to 2016, the total installed CAPACITY of RENEWABLE energy in Thailand is 6,826 MW, 7,432 MW and 8,650 MW respectively. The total installed CAPACITY of RENEWABLE energy in This table is based on the total installed CAPACITY of hydropower in Thailand. Biomass, solar, wind and other renewable energy installed total amount calculated.

[4] netease finance: the goldwind Thailand first wind power project successful interconnection, on August 2, 2013 http://money.163.com/13/0802/19/95A2KF13002540BQ.html.

[5] Sohu: "The first 120-meter rota Project of Goldwind Technology completes the first unit connection in Thailand", October 27, 2016, www.sohu.com/a/117351801_131990

[6] the north star power grid: "China's GNP wind turbine zhongnan hospital Thailand general contracting project (67.5 MW) first fan base concrete pouring completed", February 7, 2017, http://news.bjx.com.cn/html/20170207/806769.shtml.

[7] in turbine in China: the Thailand GNP wind finished with 33 world land the highest steel flexible units of civil and lifting operations ", December 6, 2017, http://www.powerchina.cn/art/2017/12/6/art_23_263318.html.

[8] Polaris network: the empty wind turbine signed international Thai orchid tower EPC general contracting project contract, on September 9, 2016, http://news.bjx.com.cn/html/20160909/771321.shtml.

[9] China power, "yingli consortium for Thailand photovoltaic power generation project general contract", on May 15, 2014, http://hvdc.chinapower.com.cn/news/1032/10324478.asp.

[10] China in turbine: the Thai GNP wind finished with 33 world land the highest steel flexible units of civil and lifting operations ", December 6, 2017, http://www.powerchina.cn/art/2017/12/6/art_23_263318.html.

[11] in turbine in China: the Thailand GNP wind finished with 33 world land the highest steel flexible units of civil and lifting operations ", December 6, 2017, http://www.powerchina.cn/art/2017/12/6/art_23_263318.html.

The author:

Xu Hongfeng assistant Dean, Professor, International Institute of Green Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics

Wang Jing Master student of Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Wang Congying, Research Assistant, International Institute of Green Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics