SUSTAINABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN SMALL HYDROPOWER FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN THAILAND: CASES IN SOUTHERN PROVINCES

Small-scale hydropower generation is an appropriate technology for Thailand. Renewable energy is essential for sustainable development. This study aims to investigate the cases in small- and medium-scale hydropower projects located in the southern provinces of Thailand for electricity generation, the cost of electricity in plants of the site selection of a small hydropower plant, and the economic feasibility and return and payback on investment in small communities. Another aim is to find appropriate feed-in tariffs to subsidy electricity generation from small hydropower plants in Thailand. This study used a weighted average cost of capital as the criterion to determine the application of findings and the RETscreen software. The Alternative Energy Development Plan aims to increase the potential of small hydropower installations for electricity generation in Thailand. This research paper studied the co-benefits of renewable energy development replacing fossil energy, including annual CO2 reduction. The results showed that the production electricity cost in the three provinces varies from 0.0152$/kWh and 0.0258$/kWh to 0.0321$/kWh. The simple payback on investment in these hydropower projects is from 2.7 to 6.8 years. This study is novel because it found that the target to satisfy the benchmark of investment with the value of the internal rate of return project in small hydropower in the selected sites with 12.0% as the feed-in tariff rate of small hydropower with an installation capacity more than 200 kW is 0.0897$/kWh. The results can apply to the feed-in tariff rate of small hydropower for government-subsidized planning in Thailand. Social benefits are CO2 reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from 1,970 to 2,195 tons/year at each location due to small hydropower projects in southern provinces instead of using electricity generated from the fossil-based national grid.