Abstract
Community renewable energy (CRE) has recently been proposed as one of the effective policy tools to make a community sustainable and to strengthen this association. CRE is, however, not widespread yet in Thailand, and evidence-based research on CRE in the country is rather scarce. This paper aims to investigate the characteristics of CRE in Thailand to identify the key factors affecting its implementation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis for 26 active CRE projects in Thailand. Results show that the characteristics of CRE in Thailand are rooted in the geographical location of a community. A legal structure was created from a pre-existing group to implement a CRE project. The primary motivation for implementing CRE is sustainable development of a community. We examined essential factors separated into two groups—internal and external factors—in reference to CRE in developed nations. We highlight several issues concerning the further development of CRE in Thailand. First, a strong group leader and a formal structure are essential to drive and manage a project. Second, networks of CRE projects and long-term revolving funds are crucial external support to implement CRE.
Highlights
In the modern world, the dominant paradigm of energy supply and production consists of a centralized, usually fossil-fuel-based energy production that generates energy remotely and supplies it to consumers over a vast region
The results showed the benefits of community renewable energy (CRE) projects to the local economy to be income generation, expense savings, and environmental protection; they did not focus on factor analysis
“Appropriate consultation” is necessary to design CRE, accounting for 83% of the groups
Summary
The dominant paradigm of energy supply and production consists of a centralized, usually fossil-fuel-based energy production that generates energy remotely and supplies it to consumers over a vast region. As an alternative to this paradigm, in recent years, there have been efforts to establish decentralized, community-owned, small-scale facilities that produce energy from renewable resources. Many studies have argued that various socioeconomic benefits are to be gained from the production and use of renewable energy (RE) resources at the community level [4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. These benefits include job creation, income generation, self-sufficient energy supply, social cohesion, and human capacity development. The crucial factors for a CRE project’s success might differ in the different contexts of communities [13,16,17,18,19], which require contrasting support structures for CRE implementation
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