Major PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow recently held a themed PV summit “Embracing the Thailand PV Industry; Enjoying the Future”. The event brought together government agencies, grid operators, industry companies, financing institutions, technical experts and all interested industry players.
Since the Thai government decided to promote solar industry in 2009, domestic installation in Thailand has grown steadily on a yearly basis. According to IHS, in terms of installation amount, Thailand is expected to a future leading emerging market, with a 2.9GW installation forecast in the next four years.
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Thailand is about to settle down 600MW PV projects’ plans within the year, with 5MW in North area, 138MW in Middle area, 159MW in West area, 200MW in South area, 87MW in East area and 11MW in all other areas. All projects will be planned out into two stages, first stage to be finished in September 2016, and second in 2018, said Rungsee Suibnugarn from Potential Plus Thailand during the summit.
Currently, the FiT policies in Thailand are drawn according to the size of the PV projects: for 0-10kW residential rooftop and business-installed projects, the FiT rate is 6.96 Thai Baht (0.22USD) per kW; for 10-450kW projects, the rate is 6.555 Thai Baht (0.21USD) per kW; for 450kW-1MW projects, the rate is 6.16 Thai Baht (0.20USD) per kW; for ground mounting projects over 1MW, the rate is 5.66 Thai Baht (0.168USD) per kW.
Since there are new installations and plans this year, the FiT in Thailand is due to be changed. The above 600MW projects’ plan will be finalised in November, with a 5.66 Thai Baht FiT rate when finished. PV Tech will keep updating the newest FiT policies, and would release a detailed analysis in the Solar & Off-Grid Renewables Southeast Asia Conference to be held in November.
Thailand market is backed with clear governmental supports and moderate subsidiaries; therefore it has attracted ever more international PV companies who are setting up their branches in the market.
As in a neighbouring country, many Chinese PV companies have set foot in the Thai market, including JA Solar, Jinko, Canadian Solar, Sungrow and many others, among which Sungrow officially enter the Thai market in the first half of 2015, setting up a dedicated Thailand office, and have secured many orders since then.
Recently, Sungrow secured another supply order in Thailand, under which agreement Sungrow has begun to supply 55.5MW PV invertors for multiple PV projects.
Yanfeng Zhou, VP of international marketing centre in Sungrow, said that up until now, Sungrow has secured PV inverter supply orders worth more than 200MW, expecting to be the leading PV inverter international supplier in Thailand with the most shipments. After considering the importance of Thailand market, Sungrow is considering to set its Southeast Asia business hub in Bangkok, Thailand.
