US clean coal technology power plant’s failures bode ill for NCPO
The largest environmental story to break this month has been The New York Times‘ exposé of the Mississippi-based Kemper Project’s mismanagement, delays, inflated costs, and alleged fraud, making a mockery of the NCPO’s plans to convert Thailand from natural gas to ‘clean coal’. The Thailand Power Development Plan 2015-2036, adopted by the NCPO via a cabinet resolution on June 30, 2015, seeks to add three coal-fired power plants by 2024, namely the 800MW Krabi Plant in 2019, the 1GW Thepa Plant Unit 1 in 2021, and the 1GW Thepa Plant 2 in 2024, followed by several more gigawatts going into the 2030’s. One of the key goals of the 2015 Plan is “Increasing coal power generation via clean coal technology due to its relatively low fuel cost, and high reserves of coal” while weaning Thailand off natural gas, which Thailand will run out of this century.
