Authorities are preparing for the second phase of the "Energy for All" renewable scheme, aiming to encourage farmers to grow "energy crops" to serve power plants that are expected to have electricity generation capacity of 200 megawatts.
The scheme focuses on plants that can be grown quickly and easily such as bamboo, napier grass and earpod wattle. Plantation will be encouraged in areas that are usually unsuitable for crop cultivation, according to the Energy Ministry.
"We expect to finalise the scheme within 3-6 months," said Prasert Sinsukprasert, permanent secretary for energy, adding the Energy Ministry will work with the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry to find suitable areas for the cultivation of these crops.
Introduced in November 2019, Energy for All is designed to facilitate businesses and communities jointly investing in biomass and biogas-fired power plants.
During the first phase, the scheme faced several delays caused by the pandemic, a cabinet reshuffle and the revision of its conditions and business model.
The latest delay resulted from a complaint made by one investor over alleged irregularities in an auction held in 2021 to grant investors licences to develop and operate power plants under the scheme.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission later resolved to drop the complaint.
However, the complaint led the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to delay the date for winners of the auction to sign power purchase agreements with the Provincial Electricity Authority, the state's electricity distribution arm, from December last year to February this year, according to a source at the ERC.
There were a total of 43 winners in the first phase.
Mr Prasert said the authorities would adjust the bidding regulations in the second phase to avoid a recurrence of the problem.
He expects the second-phase scheme to generate 14 billion baht in investment value.
In the first phase, authorities granted the winners licences to develop and operate power plants with generation capacity of 149.5MW in total. The winners were divided into two groups: 16 to develop biomass power plants with a combined capacity of 75MW, and 27 to build biogas power generation facilities with a capacity of 74.5MW.