A green utility tariff (GUT), which will be used to calculate the prices of electricity generated from renewable fuels, is expected to help boost domestic and foreign investment once the rates and conditions are finalised on Jan 23.
The rates and conditions, divided into GUT 1 and GUT 2, will be discussed in a focus group and a public hearing before an announcement, said Samerjai Suksumek, chairman of the Energy Regulatory Commission.
GUT 1 refers to rates for existing clean power operators and would be applied to certain types of renewables, while GUT 2 refers to rates for new clean power developers who would be allowed to use various types of renewable energy.
It is expected that solar energy will play a key role in driving the state's clean energy promotion.
In Thailand, factories in industrial estates demand a total of 10 gigawatts of renewable power, said Yuthasak Supasorn, chairman of the board of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand.
Their need for clean energy is based on a recent survey of nearly 5,000 factories.
Businesses need to use more renewable power to avoid a non-tariff barrier if they export products to countries within the EU, which began enforcing the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on Oct 1, 2023.
The transitional phase of CBAM requires importers of iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, electricity and hydrogen to report greenhouse gas emissions embedded in their imports without being subject to financial payments or adjustments, according to the EU.
Importers are scheduled to pay a levy for CBAM certificates from Jan 1, 2026.
Other businesses want to use more clean power because of their campaigns to achieve carbon neutrality, a balance between carbon dioxide emissions and absorption.
The government also wants to put GUT into effect after it announced in 2021 at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that Thailand would seriously deal with climate change by striving to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, along with a net-zero target, a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and absorption, by 2065.