Looking For Resources In English Or Thai About Solar Power In Isan Region

[BeastOfBodmin]

Sawatdee kraph.

My second post.

I am in Zürich with my girlfriend who is from Sakkon Nakhon.

This evening I was trying to find out why her family did not have a solar panel on the roof. We could not understand each other!

I was trying to find out such things as

The cost per KWh of electricity.

Costs of various solar electricity options - no requirement for hot water, by the way.

Heat pumps - a small amount of electricity can provide a nice cooling flow night or day. Much more efficient than an electric fan or A/C. But of course you have to install water pipes underground which is a high up-front investment.

I got the impression if you are too far away from the grid you can rent a panel for Bht 50 per month. But I couldn't understand why there are no panels on the family home.

Are there regulations against panels on the roof at home?

What is the effective, annual average solar power developed in the region around Sakkon Nakhon? Are there studies available that document this?

Expected lifetime of a solar unit?

And so on ...

In my opinion, Thai people are going to start to suffer, as world energy prices continue to climb, because of the current oil and energy crisis. I believe Thailand currently generates 70% of its electricity from natural gas from Myanmar. The emphasis on taxis rather than public transport in metro areas is going to become a killer because of the rising costs of petroleum.

[Cuban]

I believe there is a German company up between CR and the far North that is doing some solar products for domestic use. I've only seen a few solar water heaters installed in Issan, my guess was farang looking for hot water to do washing of dishes, clothes etc.

The solar panel rental - I have not encountered this, 50 Baht sounds cheap.

Heat pumps, I am looking at this idea also, but need to carry out a few test hole temperature measurments too see if it is worth the expense vs the still cheap electric prices for air-con. Rural Thais generally don't have much call for air-con and just open a few windows and run a fan.

If you don't get many more responses in this forum, ask one of the mods to move it to the DIY forum.

[Gary A]

We have some land that is not on the power grid. Some years ago the Thai government had a program to install a two panel solar electric system for houses that had no electricity available. The systems were VERY expensive and the people who had them were not satisfied with the small amount of power they had.

There are a number of companies here in Thailand who offer systems. It appears that those companies either use the exact same system or have fixed the prices. I got two quotes and they were identical as far as price and capacity.

Electricity is now about 3.5 baht per KWH. The payback from the solar systems was more than 15 years provided they even last that long. At this point, solar electric simply costs TOO much.

[mickj88]

The German - Thai solar panel company is in Khosuankwang between Udon and Khonkaen. If you seek out jibber on this site and send him a PM I am sure he will give you a contact or even help you out himself as he works there.he is a ferang so no problem with his english.

i thought abpout installing solar panels at our house but with the electric bill only being about 450/ 500 baht a month idint see the point at this moment in time. I may look into it when I am spending more time in LOS but till such a time its not economically viable for me.