Thailand energy profile
Thailand — deep gas dependence, barely-tapped solar potential
~68%
Of 2024 electricity from natural gas alone
~1%
Of ~300 GW solar potential currently utilised
51% by 2037
Renewable electricity target (up from 36%)
9.9 GW
Cumulative solar PV capacity (2024, nearly doubled in a year)
A gas-heavy grid, leaning harder on imports
ASEAN's largest LNG import capacity, and growing
Gas dominance, and rising import dependence:
Natural gas alone supplied roughly 68% of Thailand's electricity in 2024, with fossil fuels overall exceeding 80% of generation. Thailand already operates the largest LNG import capacity in ASEAN through two regasification terminals — Map Ta Phut (11.5 million tonnes a year, the first and largest) and Nong Fab (7.5 million tonnes, commissioned 2022) — and that reliance is deepening: LNG's share of Thailand's total gas mix is projected to climb from roughly 40% in 2024 to approximately 60% by 2035, with gas imports having grown at nearly 5% a year over the previous decade. Plans are underway to import 1 million tonnes of US LNG in 2026 alone, part of a broader commitment to roughly 15 million tonnes over 15 years.
Natural gas alone supplied roughly 68% of Thailand's electricity in 2024, with fossil fuels overall exceeding 80% of generation. Thailand already operates the largest LNG import capacity in ASEAN through two regasification terminals — Map Ta Phut (11.5 million tonnes a year, the first and largest) and Nong Fab (7.5 million tonnes, commissioned 2022) — and that reliance is deepening: LNG's share of Thailand's total gas mix is projected to climb from roughly 40% in 2024 to approximately 60% by 2035, with gas imports having grown at nearly 5% a year over the previous decade. Plans are underway to import 1 million tonnes of US LNG in 2026 alone, part of a broader commitment to roughly 15 million tonnes over 15 years.
A plan that reduces, but doesn't eliminate, gas:
Thailand's draft Power Development Plan 2024 aims to cut gas's share of generation to about 41% by 2037 — still a substantial baseline role — while lifting renewables to 51%, adding a small 600 MW nuclear component for the first time in Thai planning, and importing roughly 15% of supply as hydropower from neighbouring Laos. Notably, the new plan's projected electricity price is expected to fall slightly compared to the previous plan, a reminder that in Thailand's case the shift toward renewables is being driven as much by cost competitiveness as by climate policy or energy-security concerns about gas imports.
Thailand's draft Power Development Plan 2024 aims to cut gas's share of generation to about 41% by 2037 — still a substantial baseline role — while lifting renewables to 51%, adding a small 600 MW nuclear component for the first time in Thai planning, and importing roughly 15% of supply as hydropower from neighbouring Laos. Notably, the new plan's projected electricity price is expected to fall slightly compared to the previous plan, a reminder that in Thailand's case the shift toward renewables is being driven as much by cost competitiveness as by climate policy or energy-security concerns about gas imports.
Barely scratching the surface
300 GW of solar potential, and a clever way to use reservoirs
A striking utilisation gap:
Despite sitting in one of the world's best solar resource zones, with irradiance of 4-5 kWh per square metre daily, Thailand has installed only about 9.9 GW of cumulative solar PV capacity against an estimated total potential near 300 GW — meaning barely 1% of the resource is in use. That said, the trajectory is accelerating: installed capacity nearly doubled over the course of 2024 alone, and 2025 solar generation grew 72% to reach roughly 5% of the total power mix. The economics increasingly favour solar directly: utility-scale solar's cost fell 23% in a single year (2023), making it about 13% cheaper than coal, with further declines projected to outpace fossil generation through 2030.
Despite sitting in one of the world's best solar resource zones, with irradiance of 4-5 kWh per square metre daily, Thailand has installed only about 9.9 GW of cumulative solar PV capacity against an estimated total potential near 300 GW — meaning barely 1% of the resource is in use. That said, the trajectory is accelerating: installed capacity nearly doubled over the course of 2024 alone, and 2025 solar generation grew 72% to reach roughly 5% of the total power mix. The economics increasingly favour solar directly: utility-scale solar's cost fell 23% in a single year (2023), making it about 13% cheaper than coal, with further declines projected to outpace fossil generation through 2030.
Floating solar on existing dams:
State utility EGAT's most distinctive approach is floating solar-hydro hybrids — mounting solar panels directly on the water behind existing hydropower reservoirs, which avoids the land-acquisition costs and disputes that often slow ground-mounted solar elsewhere. The operating Ubol Ratana Dam project combines 24 MW of floating solar with 36 MW of hydropower and a 10 MWh battery system for load balancing, and EGAT has a pipeline of nine further floating solar-hydro projects targeting a combined 2,725 MW by 2037 — turning existing hydropower infrastructure into a foundation for solar expansion rather than building two separate systems from scratch.
State utility EGAT's most distinctive approach is floating solar-hydro hybrids — mounting solar panels directly on the water behind existing hydropower reservoirs, which avoids the land-acquisition costs and disputes that often slow ground-mounted solar elsewhere. The operating Ubol Ratana Dam project combines 24 MW of floating solar with 36 MW of hydropower and a 10 MWh battery system for load balancing, and EGAT has a pipeline of nine further floating solar-hydro projects targeting a combined 2,725 MW by 2037 — turning existing hydropower infrastructure into a foundation for solar expansion rather than building two separate systems from scratch.
Questions
Questions about Thai energy
Why does floating solar on hydropower reservoirs make particular sense for Thailand?
The core advantage is avoiding one of solar power's biggest hidden costs: land. Ground-mounted solar farms need large, flat, accessible tracts of land, which in a densely farmed, tropical country like Thailand often means competing with agriculture, navigating land-rights disputes, or clearing forest — all of which add cost, delay, and political friction to a project. A hydropower reservoir sidesteps that entirely: the water surface is already owned and controlled by the utility, there's no competing land use to negotiate, and the site is already connected to transmission infrastructure and grid capacity built for the hydropower plant. There's a genuine technical bonus too — floating panels run slightly cooler than ground-mounted ones because of the water beneath them, which modestly improves their efficiency, and pairing solar with hydropower lets operators smooth out supply: hydropower can ramp up quickly when the sun isn't shining and ease off when solar output peaks, functioning as a built-in complement rather than a competing intermittent source. The tradeoff is that floating systems cost somewhat more upfront than simple ground-mounted arrays, due to mooring, anchoring, and marine-grade equipment requirements — but that gap has been narrowing as the technology matures, and for a country trying to scale solar quickly without a long fight over land, the economics increasingly favour going onto the water. Source: Intellify Global (Thailand Energy Industry Outlook 2025-2030) · Energy Tracker Asia.
Provenance
Attribution and citation
- Sources
- Ember Energy (Thailand's 2037 Power Sector Targets) · Energy Tracker Asia · Nation Thailand · Intellify Global (Thailand Energy Industry Outlook 2025-2030) · BloombergNEF (Thailand: Turning Point for a Net-Zero Power Grid, May 2025) · Energy Policy and Planning Office of Thailand
- Cite as
- "Thailand Energy Profile — Complete Reference", The Energy Codex, https://thecodex.expert/energy/countries/thailand/, last updated .