The Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department plans to seek a budget from the Thai Khemkhaeng fund to promote grass-roots production of biogas power, to reduce the country's dependence on liquefied petroleum gas.

"It's at the stage of studying. I cannot say how much LPG imports will be reduced after communities can generate biogas power themselves. But I think it's good to start to encourage communities to produce biogas power," director-general Krairit Nilkuha said last week.

The department wants the budget to cover all regions and was now searching for likely communities to educate villagers on producing biogas power.

The project would be developed in phases. The first phase is to select communities that have enough raw material to produce biogas power, such as waste, manure and vegetation.

The budget will range from Bt30,000-Bt100,000 per community, depending on the number of households.

The project has been piloted in five communities, including Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thung Song in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Kamphaeng Phet, to produce 5 megawatts from biogas.

Krairit also said that so far the number of companies showing interest in investing in alternative energy such as solar and wind power was over the department's projection for next year.

For solar-power investment, the department projects 115MW, but now total capacity submitted for the department's approval runs more than 200MW.

Proposed wind power investment has passed 100MW, against the department's projection of 55MW.

More companies would be interested in investing in solar power farms next year than wind power due to cheaper operating costs.

The expected economic recovering next year will be other factor to accelerate private investment in the alternative energy business, he added.