Thai oil giant turns attention to renewables amidst uncertain crude outlook

Producing electricity from solar in Thailand currently costs between $62 to $111 per MW-hour.

Thai energy giant PTT Pcl is looking to boost investments in renewables on the back of an uncertain outlook for oil in the next year, a Bloomberg report revealed.

The country’s biggest company, which is involved in everything from oil exploration and power generation to gasoline and coffee retailing, revised its 2019 capital spending plan in late June, Chief Executive Officer Chansin Treenuchagron said.

“Under the volatile environment, PTT focuses more on clean energy as well as infrastructure,” Chansin said. “The plan aims to support the subsidiaries’ business expansion in electricity business and renewable energy.”

Also read: Renewables to eat up 21% of Thailand's energy mix by 2028

Producing electricity from solar in Thailand currently costs between $62 to $111 per MW-hour, compared with $69 to $88 for coal and $90 to $96 for natural gas, according to BloombergNEF research.

Thailand is moving toward producing more electricity from renewable sources. The government has a target to have about 27% of its total power generating capacity from such sources by 2037.

Read the full report here.