The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) says the new investment budget for renewable power next year could reach 96.9 billion baht for projects that could ultimately generate 1,794 megawatts.
The figures exclude businesses that generate power on their own and residential solar rooftops. The ERC has yet to finalise regulations for licences granted to those who want to develop their own solar rooftops, said commissioner Veeraphol Jirapraditkul.
He said the new investment of 96.9 billion baht is for renewable projects expected to start commercial operations from early 2019.
The biggest sum of money would be invested in wind power projects with a combined power-generating capacity of 951MW.
Most of the wind power projects were granted licences during 2010-11 but were delayed for years because they were on disputed Sor Por Kor land set aside for agricultural purposes.
The Supreme Court later ruled that wind farm operators could proceed with the projects.
Some 300MW of the renewable power to be developed next year will come from small power producers under the hybrid-firm power purchasing agreement (PPA) scheme, which lets renewable project developers use mixed renewable power resources to produce power.
Under the hybrid-firm PPA, operators must supply power as required by the Electricity Generating Authority to ensure that the state enterprise gets the exact amount of energy specified in the contract.
In addition, 269MW is to come from very small power producers, 152MW from solar farm operators under licences granted to agricultural cooperatives, 78MW from waste-to-energy projects and 42MW from biomass projects under licences granted to developers in the Pracha Rat initiative.
In other news, the ERC yesterday agreed to keep the fuel tariff (Ft) rate during January-April 2018 unchanged, meaning the average power rate will stay at 3.5966 baht per kilowatt-hour during the period.
Mr Veeraphol said the ERC kept the Ft rate flat despite rising prices of gas, coal and diesel because the stronger baht has offset the cost of imported power sources.