Solar Home Systems To Be Installed In Rural Areas

[Jai Dee]

SOLAR HOME SYSTEM TO BE INSTALLED IN RURAL AREAS

The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) will organize a meeting to discuss details of Solar Home System project.

The Provincial Electricity Authority will arrange the meeting on Friday 18th November at 11.00 am. at the Office of Provincial Electricity Authority in RATCHABURI Province. The Deputy Director-General, Mr. PRAWAT SIRIPATTARODOM (ประวัติ สิริภัทโรดม) will be the president of the meeting.

In mid-2004, the Thai government began installations in an ambitious two-year US$200 million program to provide solar home systems to 203,000 remote households, constituting one of the most ambitious solar home system programs in the world. Of these, an estimated 15,000 are located in Tak province, mostly in the western part along on the Thai/Burma border. The Border Green Energy Team aims to ensure that these systems work in the long term by providing maintenance, repair and user-training for these systems. Thai government solar home systems are only available for houses with official government registration.

This leaves out important non-household load centers including schools, clinics, temples, churches, and other community buildings. It also leaves out households without official house registration. The cost to install Solar Home System is around Bt 20,000 each house. Already 125,752 houses have been installed with the Solar Home System in the first stage and another 4,889 houses in the second stage.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 17 November 2005