GIZ together with the Thai Ministry of Energy participated in ASEAN Sustainable Energy Week 2020 exhibition. The event is the ASEAN’s largest international exhibition and the most comprehensive renewable energy technology exhibition and conferences. It was held at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC) during 22-26 September 2020. This activity is part of the Thai-German Climate Programme-Energy or TGCP-Energy project.

In the exhibition, GIZ featured a highlighted project “Improving Electrification of Koh Bulon Don with Solar Energy”. It is a collaborative project with the Ministry of Energy Thailand, ReCharge (social enterprise) in support of Australian Aid. The project is working to improve electricity access in Bulon Don island, which is the area of Thailand’s last-mile electrification. It is also the focus area of the ministry of energy Thailand who is working toward 100% electricity in Thailand.

The exhibition booth has been decorated to mimic the island’s grocery store. The sample solar home system, together with Pay-as-you-go system (digital pre-paid system) and innovative subscription plan, has been installed to demonstrate how the full model works. This allowed visitors to see the overview of our solar home system as well as knowing how the system works.

GIZ has the honour to welcome the distinguished guests who have expressed interests and visited the exhibition booth namely: Dr. Prasert Sinsukprasert , Deputy Permanent Secretary, the Thai Ministry of Energy, Dr. Twarath Sutabutr, Chief Inspector General, the Thai Ministry of Energy, and H.E. Mr Georg Schmidt, the German Ambassador to Thailand.

In parallel with the exhibition, GIZ together with the Thai Ministry of Energy held an international conference on rural electrification: International experience and development in Thailand. The project invited rural electrification experts from Indonesia and Myanmar to share the current status of rural electrification, policy and implementation within their countries. In the session, Dr. Twarath Sutabutr, Chief Inspector General, Ministry of Energy, reflected on the current status of rural electrification in Thailand & way forward. The panel discussion was also conducted to discuss case studies of relevant technologies, such as submarine cables, microgrids and solar home systems.

This session will enable policymakers to understand the current status and challenging issues posted against electrification in remote areas. It is also to solve the barriers for that last milestones and to understand project implementation from project developers¹ perspective.

1: Currently, Director-General of Department of Alternative Energy Development and Energy Efficiency (DEDE)