Kong Pagnarith and Bundit Limmeechokchai

pp. 305 - 313

Abstract

Renewable energy is an alternative resource to substitute fossil fuels. Currently, the share of renewable energy in
power generation is very low. The selected Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), namely, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and
Vietnam is a region having abundant of renewable energy resources. Though these countries have a high potential of renewable energy utilization, they are still highly dependent on the imported fossil fuels for electricity generation. The less contribution of renewable energy in the power sector in the region is due to the high cost of technologies. Renewable energy
technology cannot compete with the conventional power plant. However, in order to promote renewable energy utilization
and reduce dependency on imported fossil fuel as well as to mitigate CO₂
 emissions from the power sector, this study introduces four renewable energy technologies, namely, biomass, wind, solar PV, and geothermal power, for substitution of conventional technologies. To make the renewable energy competitive to the fossil fuels, incentives in terms of carbon credit of
20$/ton-ne CO₂
 are taken into account. Results are analyzed by using the Long-Range Energy Alternative Planning System
(LEAP) modeling. Results of analyses reveal that in the renewable energy (RE) scenario the biomass power, wind, solar
photovoltaics, and geothermal would contribute in electricity supply for 5.47 GW in the region, accounted for 3.5% in 2030.
The RE scenario with carbon credits could mitigate CO₂
 emissions at about 36.0 million tonne at lower system cost when
compared to the business-as-usual scenario.