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.