The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has announced bids for the development and operation of renewable power next year with total generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts.
ERC commissioner Viraphol Jirapraditkul said bidding will open for solar, biomass, biogas and waste-to-power projects.
As a result, the total investment budget in the renewable sector next year will rise to as high as 60 billion baht, up from 46 billion this year.
All types of renewable power sold to the government will be based on the feed-in tariff (Fit) system, whose rate the ERC has recently revised.
"It will be another year in which small investors can access business opportunities in this sector because it will take up to a decade before the ERC will open a new round of bidding for large companies to develop fossil-fired power plants or big independent power plants," said Mr Viraphol.
The first bid, expected in the second half of 2017, will be for solar farms with capacity totalling 519MW.
Energy policymakers have estimated the Fit rate for the solar farm segment to start at 4.19 baht per kilowatt-hour, slightly lower than this year's average rage of 5.60, due largely to falling construction and developing costs.
Another kind of renewable power investment to be opened next year entails biomass projects with a total power generating capacity of 400MW.
The remaining renewable power segment with total capacity of 63MW, community waste-to-power projects, is set to be opened for bidding next year.
The ERC reported that renewable power in Thailand had total capacity of 9,263MW as of Nov 30.
That accounted for 55% of the master plan goal for renewable power development in Thailand, with 16,778MW in renewable power-generating capacity targeted by 2036.
The ERC yesterday announced new fuel tariff rates to be used in calculating power bills in the first four months of next year, which dropped by four satang per kilowatt-hour to an average of 3.38 baht (excluding VAT).
The drop in the fuel tariff rate was due to the failure of the Hongsa coal-fired power plant in Laos to sell power on the grid to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) as was scheduled. As a result, the plant was required to make an available payment to the Egat of around 14 billion baht for its failure.
The payment has helped offset rising costs due to higher commodity prices.