Bright Future for Solar Energy in Thailand Forget about the use of electricity produced from fossil oil. In the time that all over the world are facing energy crisis, would it be great if we can generate a new source of electrical power to turn on a light, plug in television, do all kinds of activities or even continue manufacturing process just from the natural sunlight? With solar cell technology, we can now make best utilization of solar energy by converting the sunlight into electrical power for further consumption. As solar energy is clean and sustainable, can be found everywhere as long as the sun rises, this kind of energy is speculated as an emerging energy source of the future, which can help the world not only solve energy crisis but also reduce environmental problems.

With good geography, Thailand , which has strong sunlight covering all over the year, gains more advantages to make use of the solar power to produce electricity. For years, Thai government has put efforts to adopt solar technology and promote the use of solar energy, but with high investment cost of imported solar cell systems, it's still an obstacle for Thai people to embrace the new energy concept.

To help eliminate such a problem, the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) had an idea to free the country from relying on imported technology. A decade ago, the agency began to pool its researchers' expertise and resources in national research centers to develop Thai-made thin film solar cell technology with a hope to reduce the use of imported solar cell products and make the investment cost down while opening up a new chance for Thai people to embrace solar cell technology in an affordable price.

During years of efforts, the research team succeeded in developing the country's first solar cell technology, which came with 11 per cent conversion efficiency for 0.8 square centimeters and more than 6% for 0.8 square meters panel. This development is claimed to have higher conversion rate than some commercial solar cell products.

To vary more application, the team also made further development to add a new feature to the cell. The enhanced cell version is integrated metal plate beneath the cell to utilize solar energy for thermal water generation. So, not only can produce electricity, the cell can also bring about heat water at 70 degrees Celsius simultaneously. But due to the integration of two features, the conversion efficiency of the cell to generate electricity will be slightly reduced.

However, to lay down a strong foundation for solar energy development, the Institute of Solar Energy Technology Development (Solartec), operated under NSTDA, also set a mission to encourage local development of solar technology in all levels. The plan is to cover the development starting from the manufacturing technology for solar cell, materials and machines used in the production, and applications of the solar cell technology.

The institute hopes that all local development efforts will eventually drive investment cost of solar cell technology down at around 50 per cent.

Normally, cost of imported solar cell panel is around US$5 per watt, but if Thailand can produce the technology itself, the cost will lessen to $2.5 per watt.

As solar is a potential energy source of the future, Solartec believes that solar power will be an essential energy to help the country reduce consumption of the main-source energy in the form of electricity especially in the peak hour period.

At present, the country's power consumption stands at 25,000 megawatts, and it's predicted that the demand will reach 30,000 megawatts in 2012. To handle the rising demand, the government has a plan to encourage the use of solar cells to generate substituted energy at 500 megawatts in 2022, while 32 megawatts of which are used at present.

If this plan was achieved, it is estimated that the country would be able to save around Bt3 billion of budget in electricity production through solar cell system. This shows huge cost saving when it comes to use solar energy as a new alternative source.

Since Thailand is seen to have high potential for solar energy development, Solartec also gears up its plan to conduct five more new research projects: machinery building, local material, a local-made thin film, dye sensitized solar cell and new solar cell applications. The projects, which open for a joint research with private sector, are hoped to stimulate the expansion of solar cell production here.

Meanwhile, Solartec also has a plan to make a joint venture and license a full range of solar cell production technology to a private company while establish a solar cell manufacturing plant for producing solar cell system using Thai-developed technology. The move is expected to drive the supply of low-cost solar cell systems while push Thailand to become not only solar energy consumer but also solar technology developer.

While the use of fossil-based fuels is in the crisis and environmental problems are a major concern, it is evitable that the world has to move towards the development of alternative, renewable and clean energy. With advantages that Thailand gains in this area, it is certain that the sunny future is here and if Thailand can grasp this chance and jump into the bandwagon, it can absolutely turn itself to become one of leading solar energy production sources of the world.

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