Thailand: Firm uses wood for clean energy business

Thailand: Firm uses wood for clean energy business

Solar farms, wind farms and biomass farms have been scaling up around the
world as governments and the private sector join forces, adopting renewable
energy strategies to combat climate change caused by fossil-fuel emissions.

Wattanapong Thongsoi, managing director of the Tipawat Corporation Ltd, has
run his biomass fuel business since 2011.

The son of a rubber farmer wants to explore the potential for renewable
energy, hoping to find a higher and stable income from it.

Wattanapong set up factory in Lop Buri province to produce wood logs, chips,
pellets and other fibre products to feed biomass energy generators.

He also exports wood pellets to South Korea and Japan. Annual sales are
about Bt10 million.

Wattanapong has invested about Bt20 million in his factory that produces the
wood based inputs that feeds producers of biomass generated electricity.

He has secured contracts with many farmers whose combined land area of 2,000
rai (320 hectares) produces leucaena, a fast growing tree - and
Wattanapong's raw materials for creating wood chips and pellets. He also
sources the byproduct of animal feeds made from the leaf of leucaena trees.

Many farmers have divided their land to grow sugar cane to supply sugar
production and leucaena trees to supply for energy production.

He is upbeat, as the government recently announced a national goal to raise
consumption of renewable energy to 40 per cent of the nation's total energy
over the next 20 years.

And under the Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP2015) the government
plans to almost triple consumption of renewable energy from a current 12 per
cent to 30 per cent in the next 20 years at the expense of fossil fuel
consumption.

The plans include an increase in biomass generated electricity to 5,500
megawatt from the current 2,500 megawatts.

Wattanapong claimed his business could save 200,000 tonnes of CO2 yearly as
trees act as carbon "sinks", incorporating carbon from greenhouse gases into
their cellular structure.

He plans to increase biomass production when his new factory is completed
next month, and his sources of leucaena grow to a 10,000rai area.

Thailand is suitable for making pellet wood due our abundant sunshine and
adequate rainfall.

"We can plant fastgrowing trees in every part of the country except in the
southern region where sunshine is limited," he said.

The cost of planting tree is not high since farmers do not need to plant
them every year.

Newly-planted trees can be harvested after 14 months, with no need for
fertiliser or pesticide, he explains.

Praipol Koomsup, an energy economist, said there are some technical issues
related to electricity production using biomass as fuel.

Some electricity generators, for example the Bt400, five-megawatt project in
Trang province, use rubber wood as fuel.

Investors bought machines from India and China and encountered technical
problems.

Burning rubber wood generates tar as a byproduct, which in turn damages the
machine, thus increasing maintenance costs and adding to the overall
financial calculation, said Praipol.

Rice husk is an alternative source of biofuel, but factories often face a
shortage of raw materials.

"Yet some biomass generated electricity operators have been successful and
the biomass industry has high potential if we could solve technical issues,"
said Praipol.

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com