Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Thailand plans to build a new NIMBY coal-fired power plant in Pailin ... more land evictions ahead in Pailin?

D1 heads power plant investors

Wednesday March 12, 2008
NUNTAWUN POLKUAMDEE
Bangkok Post

"NIMBY is an acronym for Not In My Back Yard. The term is used to describe opposition to a new project by residents, even if they themselves and those around will benefit from the construction. Often, the new project being opposed is generally considered a benefit for many, but residents nearby the immediate location consider it undesirable and would generally prefer the building to be "elsewhere".

Projects likely to be opposed include: incinerators, power plants, and prisons, but far more commonly the concept is associated with obstruction and objections to transportation improvements and mobile telephone network masts." - Wikipedia

A coalition led by Dragon One Plc (D1), 124 Communication and foreign investors expects to generate returns of seven billion baht over the next two years from its new coal-fired power plant in Pailin, Cambodia. Jrarat Pingclasai, the D1 chief executive, said the project, worth around $500 million or 20 billion baht, would produce 350 megawatts of coal-fired power.

D1 and 124 will take 20% each in the project, with the remaining 60% held by an international energy company.

The initial investment if the project is 2.8 billion baht, with revenues expected at seven billion baht per year. Power will be sold to the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand under a 25-year contract.

Mr Jrarat said the Cambodian government would offer the consortium a 99-year lease for the project at a relatively low cost.

D1 will invest in the project through its new Dragon Power subsidiary. Mr Jrarat said D1 expected to receive steady revenues of 1.4 billion baht per year from the project.

He said D1 was also studying the possibility of setting up an industrial business zone in Pailin on some of the 10,000 rai of land to be leased from the Cambodian government for the power plant.

''Thai manufacturers who are looking to shift production plants to other countries should consider the Dragon Pailin [industrial zone] project, given that it is only 300 kilometres from Bangkok,'' Mr Jrarat said.

''The Cambodian government also currently offers better options for foreign investment than the Thai Board of Investment.''

Mr Jrarat said Dragon Pailin would require an initial investment of 500 million baht, and would leverage infrastructure to be built to support the Dragon Power plant.

Revenues could reach 10 billion baht per year for the industrial zone project within three years.

Mr Jrarat said that for holding company D1, revenues by 2010 would come equally from three segments: Dragon Power, Dragon Pailin and IT services.

D1 is projecting investment this year of 200 million baht, to be financed from rights offerings and warrants. Mr Jrarat is the largest single shareholder at 18%.

The company reported 2007 net losses of 138 million baht on revenues of 430.77 million, down from profits of 59.84 million on revenues of 667.13 million the year before.

Shares of D1 closed yesterday on the SET at 0.68 baht, down three satang, in trade worth 4.63 million baht.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would it be too much to expect a clean technology in Pailin for the sake of environment?

Unlikely.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but what do you propose we do with the coal in the region, let it go to waste?

Anonymous said...

If AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave allowed the fucken Thaicong coal power plants dotted Cambodian landscape and soon tourists won't come to Cambodia anymore and that the end of Cambodian tourism which bring in $2 billion a year!

Koh Kong, Pailin...

Cambodian tourism is doom! AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave government must be overthrown!

Anonymous said...

No, $2billions/yr is just 10-15% of what we foresee in the tourist. The saturation point is $20billions+, and you need a lot of electricity. Let's face fact: you can't expect that many tourists to leave in the dark, can ya?

Anonymous said...

cambodia, please don't allow any type of coal-powered plant to be built in cambodia as we said many times before, it is too unhealthy and too destructive to cambodia's ecosystem and environment. please think about it, if thailand don't allow it in their own country, why in the world, would cambodia allow it in cambodia? it required expert studies and not worth the money, not to mention the ill-health effect for cambodia, etc, etc... please think long-term, it is not a bit good for cambodia. i suggest everyone in cambodia protest against any attempt to get it going inside of cambodia!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, people have used coal for centuries now and the world did not crumble.

Anonymous said...

4:38am, what you said may be true 100 years ago, but nowaday, to use coal for a major plant is questionable. i think using coal fuel to power a mega power plant is like choosing to ride an oxcart to from battambang to phnom penh or something. in other words, it is outdated and not feasible. just look around the world now, how many country in the world out there still use coal power plant. yes, it maybe true a century or so ago, but to continue to use this method for fuel in this day and age is too ancient and not developped, to say the least! if you so agree, then why don't you advocate its use in thailand, why bother with cambodia with your garbage!

Anonymous said...

the scale of it is dangerous to use coal. i think coal should be use for small fire e.g., for barbeque and other small home cooking types not a mega power plant. it is just not feasible in the long, long, long term objective! please look at it in the long-term objective and one can see why it's just not feasible. thank you.

Anonymous said...

Guys, no one like to pollute their country, but we don't have much choice as of now. We have to use everything we got to get out of poverty.

And we need not to panic about this. With any luck, we can always shift to something better, say 20 short years from now -- Personally, I love to see us shift to Nuke, and I don't care what anyone say.

Anonymous said...

Cambodia has a choice!

Unless Cambodia want to pay carbon tax!

http://science.howstuffworks.com/carbon-tax.htm

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