Thailand Approves Expansion of Residential Solar Program to 10GW, Covering About 1 Million Households

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 18, Thailand's National Energy Policy Council approved the expansion of the residential solar power program, raising the support scale from the previously proposed 5GW to 10GW, expected to cover about 1 million households. The Thai government also expanded the applicable installation forms for the project; in addition to rooftop solar, households can also adopt ground-mounted and floating solar systems.

The project will adopt a Net Billing mechanism. Participating households will prioritize self-consumption of solar power generation, and surplus electricity can be sold to the grid. The surplus power purchase price is set at 2.20 baht per kilowatt-hour, and the upper limit of solar capacity allowed to be sold to the grid per meter is 5 kilowatts. The actual installation scale for households can exceed 5 kilowatts, but the excess portion will not be included in the surplus power purchase quota.

This approval also extends the surplus power purchase contract term from the original 10 years to 20 years, with the new purchase framework covering 2026 to 2028. The residential rooftop solar mechanism previously determined by Thailand's National Energy Policy Council also adopted the net billing approach, with the surplus power purchase scale set at 500MW, the price at 2.20 baht per kilowatt-hour, and the contract term at 10 years.

The Thai government also requires relevant power agencies to prepare grid connection conditions within one month to accommodate the expanded residential solar scale. Project installation equipment and construction enterprises had previously begun entering the qualification preparation stage. The Metropolitan Electricity Authority and the Provincial Electricity Authority opened registration for solar installation enterprises and equipment from August 3 to September 30. PV modules, inverters, and other equipment need to meet the corresponding IEC and Thai industrial product standards.

The Thailand PDP 2026 draft published on September 9 has already proposed expanding the residential solar scale and shifting households from mere electricity consumers to distributed generation entities. This decision by the National Energy Policy Council further determines the specific implementation conditions, including the 10GW scale, the target of covering 1 million households, the surplus power price of 2.20 baht/kWh, the 20-year power purchase term, and ground-mounted and floating solar.