Thailand Opens ‘People’s Solar’ Program Paying 1 Million Homes THB50,000 for Panels

Economic Warfare & Trade Policy › Energy & commodities

Photo: Joe628, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (file photo of a floating solar farm in Thailand, not a rooftop system under this program).

Thailand opened registration on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, for a “People’s Solar” program that will pay up to 1 million households THB50,000 (about $1,500) each toward rooftop solar panels, according to The Nation. The Thailand rooftop solar subsidy is funded through emergency government borrowing and is aimed at cutting household electricity bills.

How the People’s Solar program works

The standard package costs THB140,000, the government said in a statement on its website. !Unverified claim, Royal Thai Government (Government of Thailand) After the THB50,000 subsidy, households can borrow the remaining THB90,000 from three state lenders, the Government Savings Bank, the Government Housing Bank and the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, at 2.5% interest over seven years.

Households can register until Jan. 31, 2027, through the state utilities, including the Metropolitan Electricity Authority’s People’s Solar portal. About 400 registered vendors will install systems, and site surveys must be completed by June 30, 2027, The Nation reported. Utilities will buy surplus power that households send back to the grid at THB2.20 per unit.

By the numbers: the household math

The Nation gave an example: a home with a THB4,000 monthly power bill that installs a 5-kilowatt system would save about THB700 a month, net. That figure depends on how much sun the panels get, how much power the household uses during daylight and how much it sells to the grid.

For a household borrowing THB90,000 at 2.5% over seven years, the monthly loan payment is roughly THB1,170, based on a standard amortization calculation by The Boston Report.

The THB70 billion budget

The program will cost more than THB70 billion in total, the Bangkok Post reported. That includes THB50 billion for the subsidies, more than THB10 billion each for smart meters at the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), which serves Bangkok, and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), which serves the rest of the country, and THB1 billion for training installers. The government says households would save more than THB24.5 billion a year on bills in total.

Why Thailand is doing it

Thailand relies heavily on natural gas for power generation, and electricity tariffs have been a recurring political issue. Rooftop solar shifts some demand away from the grid during the day, when panels produce the most. The government has presented the program as a way to cut household bills, according to its statement.

The program also comes as Thailand’s economy is forecast to grow 2.1% in 2026, the slowest among the region’s large economies, according to IMF projections. Factory output has also been hit by floods, which our Southeast Asia hub tracks alongside Thai car production data.

Questions still open

The government statement reviewed by The Boston Report does not say how it will choose among applicants if more than 1 million households register, or how vendor quality will be checked. Utilities will also need to manage the effect of many new small generators on local distribution grids. For more regional coverage, visit our Southeast Asia news hub.

Background: Thailand’s power mix

Natural gas generates the majority of Thailand’s electricity, much of it imported as liquefied natural gas or piped from Myanmar and the Gulf of Thailand, according to the country’s Energy Policy and Planning Office. When global gas prices spiked in 2022, Thai power tariffs rose and the state utility EGAT absorbed large losses to cushion consumers.

Thailand has had rooftop solar programs before. A residential scheme launched in 2019 bought surplus household power at THB1.68 per unit, a rate many homeowners said was too low to make panels worthwhile. The People’s Solar program’s rate of THB2.20 per unit, plus an upfront subsidy and cheap loans, is a more generous package.

The floating solar farm pictured above, at the Sirindhorn Dam in Ubon Ratchathani, is run by EGAT and is one of the largest hydro-floating solar projects in the world. It shows the government’s wider push to add solar capacity at both utility and household scale.

Smart meters are a key part of the plan because they record power flowing both into and out of homes, which is needed to pay households for surplus electricity. The MEA and PEA have each been allotted more than THB10 billion for meters. Registration figures released by the utilities over the coming weeks will show how much demand there is.

Related coverage: Thailand’s September car production falls 6.08%. Philippine peso breaks past 64 per dollar. Find all of our regional reporting, plus country facts and official resources, on the Southeast Asia news hub.

Sources

• The Nation: People’s Solar program details
• Royal Thai Government: People’s Solar announcement
• Bangkok Post: THB70 billion rooftop solar plan

Additional sources

• Metropolitan Electricity Authority: People’s Solar registration portal