Thai groups bring solar rooftops out of the regulatory shade
- Photography by Peerapopn Boonyakiat
Workers install solar panels on a rooftop in Nonthaburi province. Fifty-two Bangkok households joined a collective purchasing scheme this year to make solar systems more affordable. Photo: Peerapon Boonyakiat/HaRDstories
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Thailand has ideal conditions for solar power and technology costs are plummeting. But government policy hinders household installations, leaving civil society groups to test whether grassroots organising can pick up the slack.
On a sunny morning in Nonthaburi, a truck loaded with solar panels pulled up to Sineenuch Chettha’s house. Six electricians climbed down and began unloading equipment for what would become one of the first solar installations in this suburban neighbourhood.
Sineenuch, who runs a small cat café and hotel from her home, had been waiting for this moment. Her monthly electricity bill had nearly doubled to over 6,000 baht since opening the business, which needs air conditioning running all day.
“My husband wanted solar for years to cut our electricity costs,” she said. “But the price was always too high. We kept putting it off.”
She’s one of 52 Bangkok households that joined Solar Collective Purchase this year, a pilot scheme using group buying power to negotiate lower prices, dropping typical system costs from 100,000-300,000 baht (about 3,000-9,200 USD) down to about 66,000 baht (2,000 USD).
Thai households face a paradox. Solar technology has never been cheaper, and their country sits in one of the world’s best solar zones. Yet government policy caps electricity purchases from rooftop systems at just 90 megawatts through 2030.
Now two civil society groups are testing whether collective buying power and installation support can make solar rooftop systems accessible to more households despite regulatory constraints.
A sunny country in the shade
Thailand sits near the equator, bathed in intense solar radiation with 4.06 to 5 kilowatt-hours per square metre daily, according to Climate Finance Network Thailand. That’s roughly equivalent to the daily electricity consumption of a modern refrigerator.
The country’s technical potential tops 300 gigawatts of solar power, a 2024 report found. For rooftops specifically, Thailand could realistically install 9,000 megawatts by 2037 under supportive policies, according to research cited by Germany’s development agency GIZ.
Yet solar remains a tiny fraction of Thailand’s energy mix. As of 2023, solar capacity stood at just 3,294 megawatts, roughly six percent of total generation capacity.
Solar rooftops’ share is even smaller. The National Energy Policy Council’s “Solar for the People” programme caps electricity purchases from household rooftop solar at 90 megawatts between 2021 and 2030.
To put this in perspective: that’s roughly 0.04 per cent of the country’s estimated rooftop potential. Once the country hits that 90-megawatt ceiling, the government stops buying electricity from new rooftop installations, removing a key financial incentive for households to install solar panels even if they want to.
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A bottom-up push
Solar Collective Purchase, run by the advocacy group Re Generation with backing from Thailand Consumer Council, launched early this year. The model is straightforward: pool interested buyers to negotiate wholesale prices and provide installation guidance through a centralised website.
“Thai people are struggling with expensive electricity bills,” argued Teerapong Sanglarpcharoenkit, Re Generation’s co-founder. “We have an easy solution right overhead.”
For households and small businesses, solar can cut electricity bills by 30 to 70 percent, Teerapong said. With returns comparable to 20 to 25 percent annually, most systems pay for themselves within three to five years.
Two hours east in Chachoengsao province, Sangsuree Power has taken a different approach. The group started as an organic farming collective that opposed local coal plant development, then decided to offer an alternative.
“We came up with the idea to phase down reliance on polluted fossil fuels by pushing small-scale solar,” said co-founder Oracha Chandej.
Since 2023, Sangsuree Power has installed 26 systems in rural Chachoengsao, mostly for agricultural use. The group uses similar collective purchasing strategies but adds low-interest loans for poor households and training for local engineers.
“Our progress is slow,” Oracha acknowledged. “But I’m sure we’re on the right path.”
A recent Greenpeace study found Chachoengsao alone could generate 1,500 megawatts from residential solar, enough to make the province self-sufficient by 2038 – if it receives proper support from the government.
“The only missing factor that obscures the growth of solar rooftop [systems] and hinders Thailand from upholding energy transition goals is the sincerity of the authorities to promote solar,” Oracha added.
What is holding back solar adoption?
Energy activists argue the slow adoption stems from deliberate policy choices favouring large utilities over distributed generation.
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Boonyuen Siritham, president of Thailand Consumers Council, which backs Solar Collective Purchase, has campaigned against energy sector monopolisation for decades. She sees solar rooftop systems as key to breaking corporate control.
“Thailand is a sunny tropical country with plentiful energy from sunlight,” she said. “Solar rooftops are now the most preferable choice for the country, both for equity and sustainability.”
But a few large energy corporations hold outsized influence over Thailand’s energy sector, Boonyuen argued, shaping national policy through lobbying and connections.
“The clearest example is the plan to keep buying costly electricity from large-scale privately-owned power plants, even though Thailand already has an excess energy reserve,” she said. “They count profits but ordinary people bear the cost in our electricity bills.”
Thailand’s electricity reserve margin exceeded 44 percent in 2024, according to JustPow, an advocacy group for energy justice – well above the 15 percent buffer typically needed to ensure grid stability.
But this overcapacity comes at a cost: the government must make “availability payments” to private power producers regardless of how much electricity is actually needed. In a March 2025 parliamentary testimony, opposition MP Woraphop Viriyaroj estimated that payments to underperforming power plants totalled 55 billion baht (about 1.7 billion USD) in 2024, adding roughly 61 baht to average monthly household bills.
Thailand’s Power Development Plan, the government’s blueprint for the country’s energy mix over the next decade, aims to increase renewable energy to 51 percent of total generation by 2037. But a 2024 analysis of the draft plan found that while solar will grow to 24,412 megawatts – about 16 percent of energy sources – the plan lacks clarity on how much will go to small-scale rooftop solar versus large utility projects.
The plan also includes eight new gas plants, keeping fossil fuels at 48 per cent of Thailand’s electricity mix through 2037.
HaRDstories made multiple attempts to reach the Ministry of Energy and Energy Policy and Planning Office for comment, but received no response.
New government initiative
Despite criticism that government policies discourage rooftop solar, officials proposed new measures this year.
In July, the Cabinet approved a draft Solar Energy Promotion Bill that would eliminate permits for rooftop solar. Homeowners would only need to notify authorities 30 days before installation.
But in October, the government’s own Council of State rejected the bill, ruling it overlapped with existing laws and would impose undue burdens on the public. Energy Minister Auttapol Rerkpiboon announced the ministry would abandon the legislation and instead negotiate with other ministries to revise existing regulations.
The Ministry of Energy also introduced tax deductions up to 200,000 baht for solar installations.
Yet none of these initiatives address the fundamental constraint: the 90-megawatt cap on rooftop solar purchases through 2030.
Lack of incentives
Charlie Charoenlapnopparat, an associate professor at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, said even if the bill had passed, it wouldn’t have solved the core problem.
“It bypasses the complicated registration process,’ he said. ‘But we need more incentives to make this sustainable.”
The fundamental issue, Charlie argued, is Thailand’s Net Billing system. The Energy Regulatory Commission buys rooftop solar electricity at rates lower than what it charges consumers, currently purchasing excess power at 2.20 baht per unit whilst charging households 3.99 baht per unit for grid electricity.
“This fails to create incentives for people to install solar rooftops,” he said.
He advocates switching to Net Metering, which lets solar users deposit excess daytime electricity into the grid, then draw it back at night. Combined with a grid subscription fee, this would be fairer to both users and providers, he said.
Back in Nonthaburi, Sineenuch’s solar panels are now installed. Whether her experience becomes commonplace or remains an exception may depend less on technology or economics – both increasingly favour solar – than on whether Thailand’s energy policies evolve.
Pratch Rujivanarom frequently writes about environmental justice and human rights in Thailand. He graduated with a Master’s degree in International Journalism from Birmingham City University, UK.
Peerapon Boonyakiat is a freelance photojournalist based in Bangkok and working for Hong Kong-based SOPA Images. He is interested in political stories involving conflict between the people and the government.
