Target set to churn out 100 MW from city garbage by 2011
The Energy Ministry aims to turn 10,000 tonnes of garbage per day into 100 megawatts of electricity by 2011 as government incentives will be extended to projects that generate electricity from urban solid waste. Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand said producers would be offered maximum promotional privileges from the Board of Investment and soft loans provided by commercial banks.As well, he said, they would receive a premium of 2.50 baht per unit (kilowatt/hour) paid by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand for electricity generated from waste.
He believes the incentives will attract municipalities, local administration organisations and private companies to invest in collecting garbage systematically and building power plants using garbage as fuel.
In addition to helping reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfill sites, the waste-to-energy projects will help ease global warming since mountains of garbage produce methane that has an even more adverse environmental impact than carbon dioxide.
According to Dr Piyasvasti, the country discards 40,000 tonnes a day of garbage daily, including 9,000 tonnes in Bangkok, 75% of which goes to landfills or is buried underground.
Currently, three sites produce electricity from garbage. They include Racha Thewa Co, which is licensed by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to dispose of waste in Samut Prakan, Rayong and Phuket where it operates plants with a combined capacity of three megawatts.
New garbage-to-power plants are under construction and due to be completed in one or two years in Chiang Mai municipality, Koh Chang and Kam Phangsaen.