Monday, October 19, 2015

Energy 45, Thailand's bright nights and nat gas power

When I went to Bangkok last week, my plane landed at midnight. I saw the huge, wide, extensive well-lighted areas of Thailand, even hundreds of kms. away from Bangkok proper. Very very few dark areas. They must have cheap and stable power sources.

This photo I got from the web, that's in Bangkok already. Even outside Bangkok, there are just too many lights, they do not economize on energy as electricity prices I think are cheap and affordable.

When electricity prices are high, like in the PH, aside from bad economic repercussions, there are two major social problems when many streets and roads are dark: More crimes and more road accidents. Criminals love darkness, they can see their victims well while potential victims can hardly recognize the criminals. There are many road accidents too.

Thailand heavily relies on natural gas, 68% of their total energy needs as of 2011. Other ASEAN countries that are heavily dependent on natural gas, a fossil fuel (WWF, Greenpeace, Al Gore, the UN, CCC, etc. hate fossil fuels) are: Singapore 78%, Malaysia 45%, Vietnam 44%. PH only 30% dependent on nat gas.


Source: ADB, Key Indicators of Asia and the Pacific 2014.

Is this "because of the oligarchs"? Well, almost all countries have their own oligarchs, some even have monarchies on top of the business oligarchs. So, the answer is No. The volume of power generation capacity matters a lot. See the above table, in 2011, TH electricity output was 156 B kWh, vs PH's 69 B kWh, or more than 2x ours.

They are also less affected by the climate alarmism of the WWF, Greenpeace, UN, Al Gore, etc. as they rely more on fossil fuel energy like natural gas. 
Darkness means more poverty and less business activities. 
Darkness means more candles and more fires. 
Darkness means more noisy and expensive generator sets running on fossil fuel diesel. 
Darkness means more crimes and more road accidents at night. 
The planet saviours and their hypocrisy think these are not crimes to humanity.

Geothermal is still there, contributes about 10% or so in total PH power supply.

Below are some reports how climate alarmism wants to kill any new fossil fuel power plant, they would rather have intermittent and unstable power, more expensive electricity, than have coal plant.


A friend commented that "bright nights are not always signs of better development and progress."

True, and if people want early darkness, no problem. They just turn off all lights in their house or office by 7pm and sleep early. Now some buildings, offices and houses need to have lights until 12 midnight, or 24 hours -- why should other people be penalized with frequent darkness, or expensive electricity?

Government should get out picking winners and losers via favoritism and energy cronyism.
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