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Lessons learned from studying public initiatives to support energy efficiency finance in Thailand from 1992 to 2014

Authors:
Verena Streitferdt at Pertiwi-consulting
Verena Streitferdt
  • Pertiwi-consulting
Surapong Chirarattananon at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
Surapong Chirarattananon
Peter Du Pont
Peter Du Pont
Peter Du Pont
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Abstract and Figures

Despite the huge technical and market potential for cost-effective energy efficiency investments in Southeast Asian markets, only a small fraction of this potential has been realised. Given that the major share of global future energy demand, and associated greenhouse gas emissions, will come from emerging economies, it is important to understand the barriers to mainstreaming energy efficiency into the financial sector. This paper focuses on public initiatives that support one of the main barriers: access to capital. The researchers chose Thailand as a case study because of the range of energy efficiency finance programmes that have been designed and implemented since the early 1990s. Interviews with 21 experts from government, the private sector and academia provided the core data for this research. The analysis employed a multi-level perspective and focused on the historical evolution of public support of energy efficiency finance in the country. We identified three distinct phases of public policy development over the past two decades. Despite an impressive variety of ambitious and creative programmes, the initiatives have not yet succeeded in integrating energy efficiency into the financial sector in a meaningful way. Some of the key lessons found are that (a) it is better to treat energy efficiency and renewable energy in separate financing initiatives, (b) governments find it challenging to design effective mechanisms to de-risk financial investments, and (c) international organisations play an important role in testing and facilitating the introduction of new financing approaches and mechanisms. In emerging economies, cost-effective implementation of energy efficiency measures is a promising alternative that can reduce the need for investment in large-scale power generation capacity. The researchers hope that this paper will contribute to more effective design of programmes to incentivise energy efficiency financing in Thailand and in other economies in Southeast Asia.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Lessons learned from studying public initiatives to support
energy efficiency finance in Thailand from 1992 to 2014
Verena Streitferdt &Surapong Chirarattananon &
Peter Du Pont
Received: 12 June 2015 / Accepted: 23 October 2016 /Published online: 17 November 2016
#Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract Despite the huge technical and market poten-
tial for cost-effective energy efficiency investments in
Southeast Asian markets, only a small fraction of this
potential has been realised. Given that the major share of
global future energy demand, and associated green-
house gas emissions, will come from emerging econo-
mies, it is important to understand the barriers to
mainstreaming energy efficiency into the financial sec-
tor. This paper focuses on public initiatives that support
one of the main barriers: access to capital. The re-
searchers chose Thailand as a case study because of
the range of energy efficiency finance programmes that
have been designed and implemented since the early
1990s. Interviews with 21 experts from government, the
private sector and academia provided the core data for
this research. The analysis employed a multi-level per-
spective and focused on the historical evolution of pub-
lic support of energy efficiency finance in the country.
We identified three distinct phases of public policy
development over the past two decades. Despite an
impressive variety of ambitious and creative
programmes, the initiatives have not yet succeeded in
integrating energy efficiency into the financial sector in
a meaningful way. Some of the key lessons found are
that (a) it is better to treat energy efficiency and renew-
able energy in separate financing initiatives, (b) govern-
ments find it challenging to design effective mecha-
nisms to de-risk financial investments, and (c) interna-
tional organisations play an important role in testing and
facilitating the introduction of new financing ap-
proaches and mechanisms. In emerging economies,
cost-effective implementation of energy efficiency mea-
sures is a promising alternative that can reduce the need
for investment in large-scale power generation capacity.
The researchers hope that this paper will contribute to
more effective design of programmes to incentivise
energy efficiency financing in Thailand and in other
economies in Southeast Asia.
Keywords Public energy efficiency incentives .Energy
efficiency finance .Sustainable energy systems .
Transition studies .Thailand .Southeast Asian emerging
economies;
Abbreviations
ADB Asian Development Bank
AFD French Development Agency
APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations
BOI Board of investment
Danida Denmark’s development cooperation
DEDE
Energy Efficiency (2017) 10:905–923
DOI 10.1007/s12053-016-9492-1
V. Streitferdt (*)
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology
Sydney, P.O. Box 123 Broadway, City Campus; Building 10, level
11; 235 Jones St, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
e-mail: verena.streitferdt@uts.edu.au
S. Chirarattananon
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok,
Thailand
P. Du Pont
United States Agency for International Development, Bangkok,
Thailand
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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