Published on 8/11/2010
IVL plans solar farm at Lop Buri site Indorama Ventures Plc (IVL), the world's second-largest maker of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins, is investing in alternative energy in Thailand as part of a global campaign to lower costs and increase competitiveness. The SET-listed petrochemical company will spend 275 million baht to build a two-megawatt solar farm at its manufacturing site in Lop Buri next year. The Thai project follows IVL's construction of windmills at its factory in Cumbria in northern England in 2008. That facility now supplies about 25% of that unit's energy needs. "Electricity is the most expensive part of PET production, accounting for half of our conversion costs. The more we can cut it, the more profitable we will be," said a company executive who asked not to be named. "The company wants to develop alternative energy sources at our plants around the world as part of a strategy to ensure the sustainable development of its business by lowering the use of fossil fuels." In Thailand, industrial manufacturers are encouraged to invest in renewable energy partly in the form of very small power producers through the granting of investment incentives.
Published on 8/11/2010
"The Board of Investment is encouraging industries to do this by naming alternative energy as one of its main targets for support by giving them an eight-year income tax holiday," said the executive. "The Provincial Electricity Authority has also encouraged us to create these small projects to help the community." The solar farm will comprise 10,000 photovoltaic, multicrystalline solar panels on 4.45 hectares of unused land at the Lop Buri site. A long payback period of 10 years is foreseen. "This is a pilot project for Thailand. If it works well, we might look into the possibility of investing in other similar projects," said the executive. In Lop Buri, IVL's AsiaPet subsidiary produces 180,000 tonnes of PET annually, while its Indorama Holdings (Thailand) and Indorama Textiles (Thailand) units together make 29,000 spindles of wool. It also manufactures packaging through Petform (Thailand), a joint venture with the Pepsi bottler Serm Suk Plc, with annual capacity of 600 million preforms, 180 million bottles and 1.2 billion closures. Shares of IVL closed on Friday on the SET at 40 baht, down one baht, in trade worth 1.48 billion baht.