Thailand - Wind turbines planned as alternative energy source

The Energy Conservation Promotion Fund (ECPF) is supporting a project to produce electricity by wind turbines in two southern provinces, Director-General of the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO), Metta Banturngsuk said Sunday. Speaking in his capacity as secretary-general of ECPF, Mr. Metta said that the committee had approved a budget of about Bt164 million for the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to run a project using wind turbines to generate electricity. The project will pave the way for promoting the use of wind energy to be the renewable energy in the future, he said. Wind turbines will be installed in the southern provinces of Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla and will produce a total of three million units per year that will help realise more than a Bt9 million financial return. ECPF has also given financial support to the EPPO to run a project to save the energy in the summer months. The project is aimed to cleaning about 40,000 air conditioner filters in houses and offices of private and government sectors to save the electricity of about Bt10.8 million baht each month. The project is also targeting checking automobile engines of 25,000 vehicles to reduce the fuel consumption and save the energy cost at about Bt6.5 million a month.