Feasibility Study of Wind Farms Under the Thai very small Scale Renewable Energy Power Producer (VSPP) Program

The Thai Government has been trying to promote the utilization of renewable energy as another means to diversify energy sources. However, widespread diffusion of renewable resources has been obstructed by their high initial capital costs. The very small scale power producer (VSPP) programs were launched to support renewable electricity production from biogas, biomass, municipal solid waste, wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources. Among these renewable energy technologies, wind energy has great potential to meet the electricity needs as these could provide electricity in a cost effective way. The success of a project mainly depends on the proper selection of its site. To address this issue, a Geographic Information System (GIS) based method has been developed to select technically feasible sites of a given region. A GIS database with data on wind speed, topography has been developed and applied for assessing the technical potential of the wind energy resource. It also considers electricity demand, land use, local potential and constraints such as electricity network coverage, river, road etc and thus identifies suitable areas for installing wind energy systems. The methodology was applied in Nakhonphanom province which located in the northeastern part of Thailand. As the model and the results are based on GIS, it is easy for the planners and project developers to visualize the results. In addition, it also shows the application of the method, clearly showing the applicability of the developed method using a suitable tool for assessing wind energy system.