NESTLED IN A deep pocket of forest that lies off Thailand’s electrical grid, villagers in Pa Deng have become early adopters and evangelists for an unusual alternative energy source: poop.
After successfully lighting up their homes with solar panels and stoves fueled by cow dung, the villagers are now clean energy crusaders in a country that overwhelmingly relies on fossil fuels.
It was a friend from Myanmar who first told 44-year-old Wisut Janprapai that faeces could be used to power a cooking stove.
Wisut didn’t believe him at first. But with no access to state power lines and plenty of cow manure to go around, Wisut and his neighbours reasoned it was worth a try.
Now nearly 100 families in the rural network have small stoves running on blue bio-gas balloons they crafted after years of experimenting.
The balloons are hulking polyester sacks that fill up with methane gas after microbes break down the animal manure and other organic waste packed inside.
The fuel source is healthier and more sustainable than burning wood, and also saves villagers from having to venture into the forest for kindling.
“It’s nothing complicated, just put the food and waste in,” explained Kosol Saengthong, the leader of the network. “And then the gas will come”.
Energy crisis
While Pa Deng is powered solely by green energy sources, the rest of Thailand runs chiefly on oil, coal and natural gas – much of it imported.
Successive governments, including the current junta, have warned that the country faces an energy crisis if consumption trends continue, unless new power sources are embraced.
The kingdom is the second largest consumer of energy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, and the 22nd biggest user in the world according to US government data from 2013.
Consumption is also heavily skewed. Most of the power is funnelled to sprawling Bangkok, where some of the capital’s luxury shopping centres suck up more energy than entire provinces.
But compared to its poor neighbours, Thailand is a leading investor in renewables and plans to increase its reliance on clean-burning fuels from 12% to 25% in the next five years.
Groups like World Wildlife Fund say it could be setting its sights much higher, with a recent report laying out a future that would have the country operating on 100% renewables by 2050.
Phirat Inphanich, a policy analyst at Thailand’s Energy Ministry, agrees the kingdom could be making better use of its resources.
But changing mindsets is difficult, said the 38-year-old, who travels around the country urging communities to generate more of their own power in the footsteps of Pa Deng.
These small-scale efforts will not overhaul the sector, but they can make a dent and help villagers cut down on energy costs.
‘Offered fruit in exchange for lessons’
Villagers in Pa Deng saw their first flash of electricity when former premier Thaksin Shinawatra donated solar panels nearly a decade ago. But the panels started breaking after a few years, and no one came to mend them.
“So we decided to send our own villagers to learn how to fix the panels ourselves”, said Kosol, the group’s leader.
The villagers reached out to academics and travelled to factories and research centres, where they offered fruit from their gardens in exchange for lessons on how to harness other forms of renewable sources, like the biogas tanks.
Now, unlikely experts in solar panels and other green technologies, they are teaching other rural communities how to generate power while minimising their ecological footprint.
“I was surprised at how kind and eager people were to share knowledge with me. Now that it’s my turn to teach, I will do the same,” Kosol said during a recent seminar held in the village.
But not everyone in the area is sold.
So far only a fifth of families in the Pa Deng area have bought into the network, which requires members to contribute money to a maintenance fund and a welfare pool used to cover medical emergencies.
“Those who aren’t interested in our ideas still want electric poles from the government,” said Kosol, who believes that would waste unnecessary money and energy.
Wisut, who has several solar panels hooked up to a fan and a television plus a bio-gas balloon powering the stove, says he is perfectly content.
“I don’t think we need air conditioning or a refrigerator,” he said, adding that he sees little to envy about life in noisy, bright Bangkok. ”There is no night time there,” he said.
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