Building a Green Village

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Building a Green Village
A German model is perfect for energy self-sustainability, and Thailand has what it takes to adopt it.
Published: 7/09/2010 at 12:00 AM
Bangkok Post: Newspaper section: Business



Thailand has set a target of having renewable energy make up 20% of its total power consumption by 2020, a tall order for a country where green energy now accounts for a mere 5% of total use.

The goal, however, is not as remote as it may sound, particularly if the country seriously thinks about creating a bio-energy village like Juehnde Village in Germany.

The first of its kind in the world, Juehnde Village not only uses all farm waste and resources to generate power. It also earns some cash from selling excess output to the electricity grid powering the factories in Gottingen district in the South of Lower Saxony.

Juehnde Village is a brainchild of the University of Gottingen, which started out in 2001 by looking for a village for its pilot project, said Gerd Paffenholz, the public-relation officer of the Bioenergy of Juehnde.

"It wasn't easy to start the project. When the university came up with the idea, we didn't say yes or no. For us _ only 750 people live in this small agricultural village _ this 5.3-million project is huge," Mr Paffenholz, 70, a former exporter. "And even when we finally agreed with the idea, it took almost five years to get started as we lack the financial support."

The project finally got off the ground after the Renewable Energy Act took effect in 2004, allowing government agencies to provide financial support to renewable energy projects, including the bio-energy village.

For its part, the village set up a cooperative to raise 700,000 among the villagers. It also obtained 3.3 million in bank loans and the shortfall of 1.5 million was provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, the government of Gottingen, the European Union and government of Lower Saxony.

Initially, about 60% of all households in the village agreed with the project, which required it to pay 5,000 each to invest in the project and link hot-water pipelines.

The cooperative then formed a company to start and operate the project, where comprises a 2.3-million biogas station, a 700,000 heating station, a 1.5-million hot water network and an infrastructure cost of 1.1 million. The plant began operation in 2005 and has never suffered a loss.

"We aren't profitable as we have had a limited capability to run only one engine that requires a few weeks of shutdown for maintenance without a substitute," said Mr Paffenholz.

After the project started operation, the village no longer needs to buy fuel oil to heat water. The biogas station produces 700 kilowatts hour and also the same amount of of thermal energy that can be used to heat water and distributing to each member's house.

"So, during winter, we need to keep our houses warm, but not, we use a free thermal for hot water system instead," said Mr Paffenholz.

The power output from biogas is now sold to the grid nearby as the villagers lack the fund to invest in transmission lines themselves.

They sell the power at a high fixed rate at 17 cent a unit, while paying only seven cents for the power, creating an income of 350,000 yearly in total.

"My family can save 800 a year. Despite the cost of power of 500 a year, we still have at least 300 a year left in the pocket," said Mr Paffenholz.

The biogas station mainly uses liquid manure from their own livestock and waste from farming. It is only in the winter that they need to buy wood chips to produce more power.

The project is ideal for an agricultural economy where leftovers from crops can be used as raw materials for other function. Notably, liquid manure is used twice, first in producing power and then as fertilisers for their crops.

"The plant receives 400 cubic metres of liquid manure a day for free. Also, we collected the leftover delivering to the farm again. In doing so, we can maximise the benefit from the same material by using it twice," said Mr Paffenholz.

In addition, following its success, about 3,000-5,000 visitors come to the village yearly, generating more income from tourists. Today, 16 villages in Germany are planning to follow in its footsteps.

"The new business has also brought us activities that tighten relations among villagers," said Mr Paffenholz.

So far, 140 households, or 75% of all Juenhde villagers, have joined the cooperative, a highly satisfactory rate, said Mr Paffenholz, who admitted it was very difficult to win 100% agreement.

As an agricultural country, Thailand has high potential to adopt the model provided some adjustments are made to make it suitable for the Thai structure and economy, commented Virapol Jirapraditkul, director of the Energy Planning Policy Office.

"We are interested in the model. But it was not complete integration system such as in Lampoon that the Chiang Mai University helped develop using the liquid manure from cow livestock," said Mr Virapol.

EPPO also plans to develop Koh Chang island in Trat. It has asked the Provincial Electricity Generating Authority to conduct a feasibility study, with the goal of zero fossil fuel use on the island.

For example, he said, quite a few biomass projects have failed for lack of raw materials, with the potential limited only to large-scaled ones. So far, the promotional policy has focused on investors with good supply management.

"However, the crucial point [of project establishment] is public participation. [If we want] to make it happen, we need to educate villagers to see how the project can benefit them. The [Juenhde] model is a good idea because it is sustainable and also develops a sense of ownership. I think only 60% of all members is high enough to set such projects in motion," said Mr Virapol.

The EPPO has recently changed the incentives policy to feed-in tariffs for only solar power as it decided to promote other types of fuel.

Also, Mr Virapol said the office plans to make energy-efficiency labelling compulsory for all car models in the same manner as electrical appliances. Factory and building owners will also be forced to participate more in conserving energy. "This is because the voluntary programme was unable to save energy as much as we want," said Mr Virapol.

"In the future, we have to plan cautiously if we want to follow the Juenhde model. We need to see what we can do to develop such a system that villagers can really participate in and feel the project belongs to them," said Mr Virapol.