**1. Introduction**

In the modern world, the dominant paradigm of energy supply and production consists of a centralized, usually fossil-fuel-based energy production that generates energy remotely and supplies it to consumers over a vast region. As an alternative to this paradigm, in recent years, there have been efforts to establish decentralized, community-owned, small-scale facilities that produce energy from renewable resources. One of the movements following this paradigm is community renewable energy (CRE).

CRE offers communities the ability to tackle poverty and raise the standard of living [1–3]. Many studies have argued that various socioeconomic benefits are to be gained from the production and use of renewable energy (RE) resources at the community level [4–10]. These benefits include job creation, income generation, self-sufficient energy supply, social cohesion, and human capacity development. CRE projects in agricultural communities help increase farm productivity and rural sustainability [6]. However, establishing a CRE project involves many issues, such as financial, organizational, technical, and extensive cooperation [11]. Additionally, CRE requires contribution (e.g., capital, labor, commitment, trust) from community members to drive a project to run [12–14]. Using locally available RE resources requires collective actions and agreements among community members [15]. The crucial factors for a CRE project's success might differ in the different contexts of communities [13,16–19], which then require contrasting support structures for CRE implementation.

Researchers have intensively investigated the key characteristics and factors affecting CRE development in developed countries/regions, such as the UK, Denmark, Scotland,

**Citation:** Luangchosiri, N.; Ogawa, T.; Okumura, H.; Ishihara, K.N. Success Factors for the Implementation of Community Renewable Energy in Thailand. *Energies* **2021**, *14*, 4203. https:// doi.org/10.3390/en14144203

Academic Editors: Vincenzo Costanzo and Tapas Mallick

Received: 23 April 2021 Accepted: 7 July 2021 Published: 12 July 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Germany, and Australia [13,17,20–22]. G. Seyfang et al. examined the strengths and weaknesses of the UK's CRE [17]. They conducted a web-based survey of the CRE projects undertaken between June and October in 2011. Their results highlighted that CRE is a diverse sector: their multiple objectives need joined-up thinking among governmental departments. Networking among groups and monetary policy support are essential factors driving CRE development. Another research investigated the effect of financial incentives on CRE development in Germany, Denmark, the UK, and Ontario [20]. The study argued that appropriate monetary policy support at each stage of CRE development helps communities overcome project setbacks. Network support among CREs is also vital for sector development, as in the case of the Samso renewable energy island in Denmark [13].

In contrast, there are a limited number of papers that explore the factors affecting the deployment of CRE projects in developing countries. A study assessed the impact and identified drivers of and barriers to CRE success by analyzing two community microhydroprojects in Indonesia [18]. The results showed positive socioeconomic impacts, and the essential factor is the intermediary organization's role in supporting project development. E. Macabebe et al. investigated key factors to achieve community-based SHS (solar home system) adoption and sustainability in the Philippines [23]. The results showed that giving priority to the economic value of the technology, capacity building of locals on the technical aspect, management perspectives of the project, and creation of a supply chain for replacement parts are crucial factors for the sustainability of programs. Another study identified factors that influence the success of a rural electric cooperative case in Costa Rica [24]. They argued that six factors affecting success are community governance, capacity building and engagement, ownership structure, technical design, operation and management, and system and project sustainability measures.

Evidence-based research on a community-led initiatives strategy is limited in Thailand as a developing country. A few studies have focused on Thai CRE development. One study involves exploring various aspects of best management practices (BMPs) for sustainable CRE [25]. Results indicated that the key concept of BMPs for sustainability in smallscale CRE is the "actual problem-based solving approach", which will help CRE avoid the creation of unintended negative impacts and develop effective RE implementation. Another study identified how CRE contributes to sustainable energy transitions in Thailand and the Philippines [26]. The article highlighted that valuable insights can be generated from rural- and community-driven renewable energy initiatives and underscored their power to reimagine the future of energy systems in the Global South. Previously, there was a study [9] analyzing financial issues in developing CRE in Thailand in 26 projects, which are also used in this study. The results showed the benefits of CRE projects to the local economy to be income generation, expense savings, and environmental protection; however, they did not focus on factor analysis. Despite the benefits identified, there is still a lack of a comprehensive view on the characteristics and critical factors of implementing CRE projects in Thailand. Thus, there is no basis on which support structures can be built by either communities themselves or the academe or government. Moreover, there are a limited number of studies in developing countries: two cases in Indonesia [18], three cases in the Philippines [23], and one case in Costa Rica [24]. Therefore, it is essential to identify the barriers and drivers of community-led initiatives for energy production in Thailand.

This study, hence, aims to identify factors that lead to successful implementation of Thailand's CRE. We also discuss the factors via a comparison with those in developed nations and identify potential issues and solutions. The results will contribute to the knowledge necessary for informed policymaking, practical knowledge exchange, and research collaboration between CRE stakeholders.

#### **2. Data Collection**

#### *2.1. CRE Subsidy Program in Thailand*

In 2013–2016, the Ministry of Energy (MOEN) of Thailand launched a CRE subsidy program (total of THB 60 M (million) or approximately USD 1.7 M budget) to support the development of CRE using a variety of renewable energy technologies. The objectives of the projects were to identify the necessary financial and technological support for CRE. The MOEN subsidized the project investment to reduce the payback period for a CRE project to less than 3 years.

In this subsidy program, "CRE" was defined as "renewable energy (RE) utilization in the community", where:


Communities that meet the criteria can submit a proposal to garner financial support from the program. Forty-eight CRE projects out of 75 proposals passed the MOEN criteria, while 27 projects were rejected due to lack of technical or economic feasibility. The rejected proposals could be revised and resubmitted to the MOEN before the deadline of proposal submission. Finally, 26 CRE projects were implemented, and the remaining 22 projects canceled their contracts due to several reasons, for example, an unstable market of the product of the project (25%), lack of financial resources (19%), uncertainty of project success (19%), inability to form a legal entity (13%), and others (25%). The overall schedule of the CRE subsidy program in Thailand is shown in Table 1.

#### **Table 1.** Schedule of the CRE subsidy program in Thailand.

