THE WORTHINESS OF INVESTMENT IN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IN THAILAND

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to study 1) the cost structure of alternative energy and the return on investment for each type of alternative energy,
2) the worthiness of the investment in alternative energy, and 3) the factors affecting the worthiness of the investment in alternative energy in Thailand. The
mixed method, quantitative and the qualitative, was used. Twenty key informants, including the operators of biogas alternative energy as well as the alternative
energy scholars were interviewed as a part of qualitative study. As for the qualitative one, 298 were selected from 1,320 personnel working in the factory
participated in biogas technology promotion projects using Krejcie and Morgan’s table by means of stratified sampling and simple random sampling. The research
tools were the in-depth interview and questionnaires. The analytic induction method was also utilized to analyze the qualitative data, while multiple regression analysis was used with the quantitative data.

The research findings were as follows :
1. The cost structure of all types of alternative energy was not different.However, when considered in terms of return, the alternative energy such as biogas
was better than the others based on the measurement of 3-4 year payback period.2. The worthiness of the investment in alternative energy must take into
consideration not only the investment of low costs of infrastructure and highprofitability, but also the overall economic worthiness, society and community, and
environment.3. The factors affecting the worthiness of the investment in alternativeenergy in Thailand, including costs in land, buildings, technology/consultancy,
materials and electrical bills, revealed a statistical significance at 0.05 level.