IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i2p834-843.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The net cost of biofuels in Thailand--An economic analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Bell, David R.
  • Silalertruksa, Thapat
  • Gheewala, Shabbir H.
  • Kamens, Richard

Abstract

Biofuels are expected to represent a growing portion of liquid fuel consumption in Thailand due to environmental and social considerations in conjunction with policy goals supporting their domestic production and consumption. This paper reviews the economic costs associated with biofuel policy implementation in Thailand in the short term target year of 2011. Internal (production) and external (environmental, social, etc.) costs and benefits are evaluated, and, where possible, monetized. Domestic production of biofuel is calculated to be 9.5 billion THB (317 million USD) more expensive than importing the equivalent amount of petroleum. The environmental benefits from GHG savings as well as losses due to increased ground level ozone formation and government expenditure to support the biofuel industry yield a total "net cost" of 8.6 billion THB or 121Â THB (4.04Â USD) per capita for the year 2011. This result is contextualized with the (non-monetized) consideration that although biofuels are somewhat more expensive in the short term, their domestic production allows virtually all of the money to stay within the Thai economy as opposed to being sent abroad. This fact, coupled with significant uncertainty in future petroleum prices, could strongly influence the direction of Thai policy with respect to biofuels.

Suggested Citation

  • Bell, David R. & Silalertruksa, Thapat & Gheewala, Shabbir H. & Kamens, Richard, 2011. "The net cost of biofuels in Thailand--An economic analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 834-843, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:2:p:834-843
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(10)00808-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fredrik Carlsson & Mitesh Kataria & Alan Krupnick & Elina Lampi & Åsa Löfgren & Ping Qin & Susie Chun & Thomas Sterner, 2012. "Paying for Mitigation: A Multiple Country Study," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(2), pages 326-340.
    2. Peters, Jörg & Thielmann, Sascha, 2008. "Promoting biofuels: Implications for developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1538-1544, April.
    3. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Liu, Liqun & Neilson, William S., 2005. "Endogenous private health investment and the willingness to pay for public health projects: The effects of income," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 415-420, June.
    5. Sundqvist, Thomas, 2004. "What causes the disparity of electricity externality estimates?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(15), pages 1753-1766, October.
    6. Goedecke, Martin & Therdthianwong, Supaporn & Gheewala, Shabbir H., 2007. "Life cycle cost analysis of alternative vehicles and fuels in Thailand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3236-3246, June.
    7. Weidema, Bo Pedersen, 2009. "Using the budget constraint to monetarise impact assessment results," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1591-1598, April.
    8. repec:zbw:rwirep:0038 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Silalertruksa, Thapat & Gheewala, Shabbir H., 2010. "Security of feedstocks supply for future bio-ethanol production in Thailand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7476-7486, November.
    10. Zhang, Cheng & Han, Weijian & Jing, Xuedong & Pu, Gengqiang & Wang, Chengtao, 2003. "Life cycle economic analysis of fuel ethanol derived from cassava in southwest China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 353-366, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Khoodaruth, A. & Elahee, M.K., 2013. "Use of higher fibre cane for increasing cogenerated electricity: Policy implications for Mauritius," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 67-75.
    2. Chanthawong, Anuman & Dhakal, Shobhakar, 2016. "Stakeholders' perceptions on challenges and opportunities for biodiesel and bioethanol policy development in Thailand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 189-206.
    3. Pacharaporn Arkornsakul & Woraphon Yamaka & Sombat Singkharat, 2015. "Consumer?s Willingness to Pay for Gasohol E100 in Chiang Mai Province and Nakhon Ratchasima Province," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 2704676, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    4. Kamal Soundararajan & Elspeth Thomson, 2013. "Asia and European transport biofuels stalled at the same place?," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 247-263, September.
    5. Rujee Rodcha & Nitin K. Tripathi & Rajendra Prasad Shrestha, 2019. "Comparison of Cash Crop Suitability Assessment Using Parametric, AHP, and FAHP Methods," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Awudu, Iddrisu & Zhang, Jun, 2012. "Uncertainties and sustainability concepts in biofuel supply chain management: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 1359-1368.
    7. Ribeiro, Barbara Esteves, 2013. "Beyond commonplace biofuels: Social aspects of ethanol," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 355-362.
    8. Zheng, Qiujie & Shumway, C. Richard, 2012. "Washington biofuel feedstock crop supply under output price and quantity uncertainty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 515-525.
    9. Kim, Jiyong & Miller, James E. & Maravelias, Christos T. & Stechel, Ellen B., 2013. "Comparative analysis of environmental impact of S2P (Sunshine to Petrol) system for transportation fuel production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1089-1098.
    10. Nimmanterdwong, Prathana & Chalermsinsuwan, Benjapon & Piumsomboon, Pornpote, 2023. "Optimizing utilization pathways for biomass to chemicals and energy by integrating emergy analysis and particle swarm optimization (PSO)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 1448-1459.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Hengyun & Oxley, Les & Gibson, John & Li, Wen, 2010. "A survey of China's renewable energy economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 438-445, January.
    2. Chaya, Wirawat & Jesdapipat, Sitanon & Tripetchkul, Sudarut & Santitaweeroek, Yuwanan & Gheewala, Shabbir H., 2019. "Challenges and pitfalls in implementing Thailand's ethanol plan: Integrated policy coherence and gap analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 1050-1063.
    3. repec:zbw:rwirep:0340 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. German, Laura & Goetz, Ariane & Searchinger, Tim & Oliveira, Gustavo de L.T. & Tomei, Julia & Hunsberger, Carol & Weigelt, Jes, 2017. "Sine Qua Nons of sustainable biofuels: Distilling implications of under-performance for national biofuel programs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 806-817.
    5. Carriquiry, Miguel A. & Du, Xiaodong & Timilsina, Govinda R., 2011. "Second generation biofuels: Economics and policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4222-4234, July.
    6. Matthias Diermeier & Torsten Schmidt, 2012. "Oil Price Effects on Land Use Competition – An Empirical Analysis," Ruhr Economic Papers 0340, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Cansino, JM & Cardenete, MA & González-Limón, JM & Román, R, 2013. "Economic impacts of biofuels deployment in Andalusia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 274-282.
    8. Diermeier, Matthias & Schmidt, Torsten, 2014. "Oil price effects on land use competition: an empirical analysis," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17.
    9. Nguyen, Thu Lan Thi & Laratte, Bertrand & Guillaume, Bertrand & Hua, Anthony, 2016. "Quantifying environmental externalities with a view to internalizing them in the price of products, using different monetization models," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 13-23.
    10. Arndt, Channing & Pauw, Karl & Thurlow, James, 2012. "Biofuels and economic development: A computable general equilibrium analysis for Tanzania," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1922-1930.
    11. Anni Orola & Anna Härri & Jarkko Levänen & Ville Uusitalo & Stig Irving Olsen, 2022. "Assessing WELBY Social Life Cycle Assessment Approach through Cobalt Mining Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-26, September.
    12. Enevoldsen, Peter & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2016. "Integrating power systems for remote island energy supply: Lessons from Mykines, Faroe Islands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 642-648.
    13. Andreas Löschel & Dirk Rübbelke, 2014. "On the Voluntary Provision of International Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(322), pages 195-204, April.
    14. Canabarro, N.I. & Silva-Ortiz, P. & Nogueira, L.A.H. & Cantarella, H. & Maciel-Filho, R. & Souza, G.M., 2023. "Sustainability assessment of ethanol and biodiesel production in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    15. Baka, Jennifer & Roland-Holst, David, 2009. "Food or fuel? What European farmers can contribute to Europe's transport energy requirements and the Doha Round," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2505-2513, July.
    16. Nguyen, Thu Lan T. & Hermansen, John E. & Mogensen, Lisbeth, 2010. "Fossil energy and GHG saving potentials of pig farming in the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2561-2571, May.
    17. Sarah Jansen & William Foster & Gustavo Anríquez & Jorge Ortega, 2021. "Understanding Farm-Level Incentives within the Bioeconomy Framework: Prices, Product Quality, Losses, and Bio-Based Alternatives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    18. James Thurlow & Giacomo Branca & Erika Felix & Irini Maltsoglou & Luis E. Rincón, 2016. "Producing Biofuels in Low-Income Countries: An Integrated Environmental and Economic Assessment for Tanzania," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(2), pages 153-171, June.
    19. Argueyrolles, Robin & Delzeit, Ruth, 2022. "The interconnections between Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reforms and biofuels," Conference papers 333492, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    20. Aruga, Kentaka, 2011. "非遺伝子組換え大豆とエネルギーの価格関係について [Relationships among the Non-Genetically Modified Soybean and Energy Prices]," MPRA Paper 38186, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Aug 2011.
    21. Ribeiro, Lauro André & Silva, Patrícia Pereira da, 2013. "Surveying techno-economic indicators of microalgae biofuel technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 89-96.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic analysis Biofuels Thailand;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:2:p:834-843. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.