From May 2025 through April 2026, Thailand relied on fossil fuels for more than two-thirds of its electricity consumption. Gas supplied about 56% and coal about 13%, while net imports accounted for another 17%; the supplied data do not identify whether those imports were low-carbon or fossil-based. Domestic low-carbon sources supplied only about 14% of consumption: solar contributed almost 5%, biofuels about 4%, hydropower almost 4%, and wind roughly 1.5%. Expanding clean electricity would help reduce Thailand’s heavy dependence on fossil fuels and their associated climate and air-pollution impacts.

Is Electricity Growing in Thailand?

Thailand’s latest electricity consumption figure for 2026 is about 3,190 kWh per person, slightly below the historic record of about 3,230 kWh in 2024—a reported decline of roughly 38 kWh per person, or just over 1%. This indicates that consumption has not yet surpassed its previous peak, rather than establishing whether it fell from the immediately preceding year. Low-carbon electricity generation, however, reached a new record of 451 kWh per person, exceeding the 2025 record of 435 kWh by 16 kWh, or almost 4%. That clean-electricity growth is encouraging, but Thailand needs a stronger overall expansion to support electrification and growing demand from AI and other industries.

Suggestions

Thailand should accelerate solar deployment while developing nuclear electricity as a complementary source of clean generation. Relevant Asian examples include Sri Lanka, where solar supplies 15% of electricity generation, and Pakistan, where solar supplies 24% and nuclear another 13%. Thailand could learn from their experience expanding solar, including deployment on rooftops and at utility scale, alongside grid investment and storage. For nuclear development, South Korea’s roughly 25% nuclear share and the United Arab Emirates’ 20% offer useful examples of substantial clean-electricity contributions, while France demonstrates the potential for nuclear to supply about two-thirds of generation. These shares are examples rather than automatic targets: Thailand should adapt successful approaches to its own electricity system and pursue much larger solar and nuclear contributions.

History

Thailand’s low-carbon electricity history has featured repeated hydropower gains and reversals. Hydropower generation rose by 1.8 TWh in both 1986 and 1989 and by 2.2 TWh in 1995, before falling by a combined 3.6 TWh in 1998–1999. Gains of 2.5 TWh in 2000 and 2.3 TWh in 2006 were followed by further fluctuations during the 2010s and early 2020s, including increases in 2011, 2018 and 2022 and declines in 2013, 2015 and 2020. Biofuel generation increased by 2.3 TWh in 2013 and a substantial 10.8 TWh in 2016, then declined in 2017, 2019 and 2025. Wind added 2 TWh in 2019, and solar’s 4.5 TWh increase in 2025 was a particularly encouraging step toward a larger clean-electricity supply. Sustaining and accelerating solar growth, alongside future nuclear development, would help Thailand build on that progress.

Electricity Imports and Exports

Balance of Trade

* 12M = Last 12 months (May 2025 – Apr 2026) — a rolling 12-month period, not a calendar year.