Future of Alternative Energy in Thailand - Implementing Environmental and Resource Management - page 101

Before the economic slowdown in 2008, there were significant pricing gaps be-
tween different types of gasoline and biofuels, which gave motorists the chance to
compare and choose. In December 2008, with gasoline prices getting cheaper, the
effect brought biofuels prices down, and made the pricing gaps among fuels very
narrow. The price of the newest biofuel introduced into the market (gasohol E85)
was much cheaper than gasohol E20 or the diesel palm (PTT 2008b). At the time
of authorship of this paper, gasohol E85 had become more expensive. In such cir-
cumstance, it would be difficult to encourage motorists to change their habits of
using conventional fossil fuels to a greener alternative fuels as gasohol, biodiesels
and NGV.
10.4 Conclusions and Recommendations
A review of the Thailand experience in terms of the future of alternative energy
leads to a number of conclusions. It is important to secure and stabilize the energy
situation, in order to generate a healthy and competitive environment. Looking at a
holistic view of the energy sector, there are several problems that have to be re-
solved, such as: dependence on imported oils, inefficient logistics, and lack of en-
ergy-saving behaviour from the consumer. All in all, the problem at the end-of-
pipe is that the country's energy consumption is greater than the production of al-
ternative energy. This problem can be alleviated by 1) reducing the energy con-
sumption 2) enhancing the energy efficiency 3) using more alternative energy.
1. To reduce energy consumption, the concept of energy conservation has been
introduced to both public and private sectors, in order to reduce the energy con-
sumption in industrial, transportation, residential, commercial, and agricultural
sectors. In 1992, the Energy Conservation Promotion Act (ECP Act) was intro-
duced (B.E. 2535) as a tool to promote energy conservation activities, particularly
in the private sector. It was reported that the electricity consumption from 1993 to
1995 increased by 0.3%, but the oil consumption reduced by 25%, in spite of the
real GDP growth increasing from 8% to 9.3% (EPPO 2008c). The relationship be-
tween the relevant factors of economic growth, oil prices, energy consumption,
and energy saving shows varying, non-linear and dynamic behaviour. Thus suc-
cessful renewable energy projects should be closely related to the appropriate mix
of these factors. Nevertheless, cutting the energy demand through promoting the
energy-saving policy is one of the indispensable strategic tools that must be em-
ployed at all levels of energy management, as it would help to reduce future prob-
lems at the beginning of the pipe.
2. To enhance the energy efficiency, the focus issues are mainly on the im-
provement of energy efficiency across all sectors. One sector which has high po-
tential for improving energy efficiency is transportation. Thailand's logistics rely
mainly on road transportation. Efficient logistics rely on rail and water transporta-
tion which can load/serve more goods/passengers than road transportation. An ur-
ban decentralization is highly recommended in order to distribute growth to
neighborhood areas, which can alleviate the congestion in the big city. Existing