Thai-German Cooperation on Energy, Mobility and Climate (TGC EMC)

CONTEXT

At COP26, Thailand announced two ambitious targets: carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero emissions by 2065. To achieve these goals, Thailand needs to decarbonise its power, transport, and industrial sectors, which are still dominated by fossil fuels, and increase variable renewable energy (vRE) generation (e.g., wind and solar), which remains far below its full potential.

The potentials of variable renewable energy (vRE) remain far below what is feasible in Thailand, while other energy-intensive sectors (i.e., transport, industry) are still dominated by fossil fuels. The market penetration of vRE and the electrification of end-use sectors are both limited by barriers inherent to the Thai power sector. These include inflexibility in power-system operation and planning, but also limited technological resources and skills in integrated planning, which stand in the way of a renewables-based transformation of the energy system. Ambitious carbon neutrality (by 2050) and sector-specific targets have not been pursued by the market and regulatory structures that could drive transformation. Other barriers to transition are a lack of concrete decarbonisation roadmaps and poor understanding of sector coupling, as well as insufficient cross-sectoral dialogue. These factors prevent investment and vRE ramp up and currently limit their role as decarbonisation options in the transport and industry sectors.

OBJECTIVE

Key actors in Thailand are becoming empowered in the planning and implementation of transformative activities in the energy, transport and industry sectors in line with the Government’s 2050 carbon neutrality objective.

APPROACHES

The project supports Thailand’s efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, focusing on the two most important sectors in terms of emissions. It aims to reach its goals by:

• supporting the transition in the power and transport sectors with a technology and knowledge transfer.
• developing policy, regulatory and business models with a clear focus on sector coupling to tackle cross-sector issues hampering the energy transition.
• setting up city labs offering technical, regulatory and business support to local urban actors and integrating a scaling-up plan,
• providing significant support in the field of climate finance, for example in the form of seed funding local projects, as well as measures to increase the capabilities of both fund managers and potential recipients.

FINANCED BY

German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) (IKI)

COUNTRY

Thailand

PROJECT PARTNERS

Agora Energiewende, Agora Transport Transformation gGmbH (Agora Transport), Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Integrated Energy Systems CINES, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), SGTech – Naresuan University, Thai Renewable Energy Association – RE100

PROJECT DURATION

01/2023 – 12/2027

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