SET-listed SPCG, a pioneer in solar farm development in Thailand, expects to earn more revenue from sales of rooftop solar panels to residential and commercial buildings as well as industries, with solar power becoming more popular.
A surge in electricity bills is a key factor driving demand for rooftop solar panels among households and businesses, said Pipat Viriyatranon, financial director of SPCG.
The company's wholly-owned subsidiary Solar Roof Thai, which was set up in January this year, sells products to residential buildings, while another subsidiary oversees sales to commercial buildings and factories.
SPCG set a target to sell rooftop solar panels with a power generation capacity of 750 megawatts, up from 5MW, in the residential building segment. The company did not set a time frame, but expects to achieve the goal in 2-3 years.
SPCG generated sales in the commercial building and factory segments, with capacity of 50MW and 200MW, respectively.
Its rooftop solar panel business is expected to help the company offset a drop in revenue from electricity sales at its solar farms, attributed to the expiration of adder tariffs granted to its 36 farms.
This year adder tariffs expire at 14 of SPCG's solar farms, while tariffs expire at 13 additional solar farms next year. The company already lost some revenue from the expiration of adder tariffs at nine of its solar farms.
To deal with the revenue loss, SPCG plans to develop 23 new solar farms across the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) under the government's 500MW EEC Solar Farm scheme. The power generation capacity of this project is set at 316MW for the first phase.
The company also invested in solar farms in Japan. It is operating two solar farms: the 30MW Tottori Yonago Mega Solar Farm and the 6.7MW Fukuoka Miyako Mega Solar Farm.
The capacity calculation is based on the company's shareholding.
Another solar farm project, Ukujima Mega Solar Farm, with a capacity of 86MW, is under construction and scheduled to start operation in July next year.
