The use of energy has been increasing every year. This increasing is greatly in opposite direction of the amount of oil left in the World. There has been the search for energy replacement especially from the Sun, The wind, the plant and animal manure. The solar energy has been under most research and most funding project.

Solar Energy

At present Thailand has 3 electrical plants operated on solar energy especially the plant at Maehongsorn province which is the biggest pant and can produce electricity more than 5,000 Mega Watt. The total 3 electrical plants could produce 5,221 Mega Watt.

To produce electricity 1,000 Watt from solar energy plant requires an investment no less than 100,000 Baht. If the electricity could be used for 8 hours it, it could save money 5,840 Baht/year or could get return investment in 17 years.ี

But to store the electricity for use at night time will required investment in battery. Even if we can save some money, finding the capital investment could be a problem too.

Wind Energy

Wind is another choice of energy replacement. It could be a possible choice. We could use wind mill to turn the electrical generator. The turning speed could start from 3 meter/second and the best speed should be 12 meter/second. If the speed increases to 25 meter/second which is equivalent to the storm condition, it could damage the wind mill structure. The uniformity of the wind speed is also important. If the speed drops below 3 meter/second, it could not produce the electricity.

Base on information from the countries using wind energy such as Northern Europe, it was estimated that the cost of wind mill built on the land was 700-800 EU/Kilo Watt and in the sea would cost 1700 EU/Kilo Watt. The maintenance cost is 1-3% of construction cost on land. In the sea the maintenance cost would be 30 EU/Kilo Watt per year. For economic feasible, it is recommend to use windmill that could produce electricity 750-800 EU/Kilo Watt.

Bio Mass Energy

Biomass is organic matter obtained from plant and animal such as pieces of wood, garbage, agricultural matter which are local important energy sources.

Thailand is an agricultural country which has many agricultural produce such as rice husk, rice straw, bagasse, fiber, palm shell and cassava head. This biomass could be burned and use the heat obtained in electrical producing process.

Each biomass will have different property such as rice husk will give high heat value due to low moisture content and need no grinding before burning. The ash obtained from burning of rice husk could be used in the steel industry and glass industry. The bagasse is used as fuel and produce low amount of ash causing less management problem. The obtained ash could be used for soil improvement in the sugar cane farm.

The benefit of using biomass is the minimal effect to the environment because it produce low amount of sulfur compare to other fuel and causing no “green house effect”. Besides it promote the use of local raw material and effective use of natural resource, also the farmers will have more income by selling agricultural by products.

But there are certain drawbacks that the biomass is spreading all over the places make it difficult to collect for energy production. It was estimated that the biomass leftover from other use could be used for electricity production of 700-1000 Mega Watt. If the use of biomass could be developed, it should benefit the nation as a whole.

Biodiesel

ีObtain from plant oil or animal fat thru chemical reaction. Potential plants for oil production and promotion are oil palm, coconut, soy bean, peanut, sesame and castor oil plant. Oil palm is the main source from plant in producing biodiesel. At present the plant has the capacity to produce 10 millions liter of palm oil. The manufacturers of fuel pump accept the use of not more than 5% biodiesel to mix with diesel oil. In 2002, the yield of oil palm fruit was 4 million ton or equal to 68,000 ton per month and the market consumption is 55,000 ton per month, so there will have 13,000 ton surplus. Thus there will not have enough palm oil for biodiesel production. Economic feasibility should be considered and well planned for biodiesel project.

Ethanol

Ethanol is a kind of alcohol that is used to mix with benzene to produce gasohol. In Thailand, ethanol production capacity is 25,000 liter/day and is expected to rise to 3 million liter/day is 2001 while the need is only 114 million liter obtained from mixing 25% ethanol with benzene or car fuel.

When looking from the past there the future it was found that the need of energy in each category has increased very much but the amount of energy has decreased very fast. It is to wait and see if the energy policy of the government is sustainable or just to be casual.

(Part of information is quoted from the newspaper “Bangkok Business”)