PTT opens solar-cell petrol station

PTT officially opened Thailand’s first solar-cell petrol station, on Bang Na-Trat Road, km 14, in Samut Prakan’s Bang Phli district, in response to the government’s energy-conservation campaign. “This is the latest innovation in the oil business and represents another step forward in alternative-energy development, following PTT’s pioneering introduction of gasohol and natural gas for vehicles,” said President Prasert Bunsumpun. Its generating system is linked to the transmission network of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), so that during periods of excess capacity, it can sell the surplus to the MEA. The reduction in power demand saves about 15,000 liters of fossil fuel a year and reduces the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by as much as 33,726 kilograms per year. (August 8, 2007)