TPIPP preps carbon credit trade
TPI Polene Power Plc (TPIPP), Thailand’s largest waste-to-energy (WTE) project developer and operator by capacity, is ready to trade carbon credits following its decrease of carbon dioxide emissions under a plan to reduce coal use.
Carbon credits refer to the amount of greenhouse gas reduction generated by environmental projects, which can be traded by companies to offset the carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere.
TPIPP, the renewable power generation arm of cement maker TPI Polene Plc, received credits for the reduction of 760,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent after it used waste from the cement production process and waste from metropolitan areas in central Thailand as fuel for electricity generation.
The volume data was collected from July 2015 to December last year.
The credits were granted by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization, which co-launched with the Federation of Thai Industries a carbon credit platform in September to facilitate carbon credit trade in Thailand.
Worawit Lerdbussarakam, vice-president of TPIPP, said the company will continue to increase its carbon credits as it aims to use more waste to replace coal in cement production and electricity generation.
TPIPP’s coal-fired power plants are expected to import 450,000 tonnes of coal this year, down from 940,000 tonnes last year and 1.2 million tonnes in 2020.
Under its “Mission to No Emission” campaign, the company will reduce coal-fired power generation capacity to 150 megawatts next year, down from 220MW in 2020. It wants to have zero imports of coal by 2025.
TPIPP plans to increase the capacity of its WTE power plants to 520MW next year, up from 440MW, after being granted licences to develop new facilities by the government.
Pakkapol Leopairut, executive vice-president for accounting and finance, said the company diversified to other renewable energy segments, notably solar and wind, to produce power for its parent firm and reduce dependence on the state grid. The projects include a 57MW solar farm, worth 1.7 billion baht, in Saraburi.