Thailand

Thailand’s energy mix is currently dominated by fossil fuels and the country has its own fossil energy resources including crude oil, natural gas, and coal. However, these energy sources cover only 34 percent of domestic consumption and with more than half of its energy demand fulfilled by imported energy and the increasing energy price volatility, Thailand may find itself having to cope with energy security challenges in the future. 

This calls for the Thai government to make efforts to improve energy efficiency and diversify the energy sources and it has long been promoting and supporting renewable energy development, with the aim to steadily increase the use of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency so that the country does not have to rely heavily on imports of fossil fuels and foster economic growth with lower environmental impacts, the Thai government has established ambitious targets and policies, together with incentive schemes, to support the development of renewable energy sources including solar, wind, biomass and biogas, waste-to-energy and hydropower. 

Swedish companies offering products and services related to power generation from renewable energy sources will find opportunities to capture the rising demand in Thailand. When it comes to harnessing opportunity from smart grid development, however, the opportunities are abundant not only for energy-technology companies but also for ICT solution providers specialising in Internet of Things (IoT) data analytics and management.

Opportunities in the early stage will be around substation automation, microgrid development, distributed generation, energy storage, advanced metering infrastructure, optimised asset management, optimised mobile workforce, intelligent streetlights, and cyber security.

Transportation and manufacturing currently combined account for more than 70 percent of the total energy consumption and the growth of total consumption is driven primary by higher energy usage in the transportation sector.

Thailand Business Climate Survey 2022 – Business Sweden (business-sweden.com)