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Thai firm cashes in on emissions reduction
VICHAYA PITSUWAN
A.T. Biopower Ltd, a small power producer (SPP), is upbeat after announcing it is the first company in Thailand to earn extra income from selling carbon credits. Chief executive officer Natee Sithiprasasana said the company had received Certified Emission Reduction (CER) documents from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC, which certified that it had cut 100,678 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 19 months from its low-emission power plant.
The company operates an SPP rice-hull power plant, which produces 20 megawatts of electricity. All output goes to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).
''The carbon credit is sold to a higher-emission power plant operated by Chubu Electric Power from Japan. It adds almost 40 million baht to our cashflow,'' Mr Natee said.
Mr Natee said the extra revenue from carbon credits had helped the company's financial position as it is losing money and is struggling to survive amid rising production costs. Its net revenue is expected to reach 400 million baht this year.
''We are proud to be the first Thai company to have been issued this certification and to help save the world from global warming,'' Mr Natee said.
The calculation of carbon emission reductions is done through comparisons between each industry, he explained. Under CDM practice, coal-fired and gas-fired power plants in Thailand emit up to 73,000 tonnes of carbon a year on average to produce 20 megawatts, compared to A.T's plant, which emits only 3,000 tonnes of carbon. ''It means that we have a credit of 70,000 tonnes,'' he said.
However, CDM practice requires extra investment and a Project Design Document (PDD), he added, which must be certified by UNFCCC. It also needs to be recognised by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation and verified by a UNFCCC-authorised service provider.
The certification can be traded to companies needing to reduce gas emissions. More than 60 companies worldwide need to buy credits.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrial countries listed in Annex 1, mostly European with Japan as the only one in Asia, to reduce gas emissions to a designated level in 2012 or face penalties of 100 per tonne of carbon dioxide they fail to cut.
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