The government campaign against carbon dioxide emissions is gaining momentum, with Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) becoming the latest to work with health and energy officials to build "green hospitals" by installing solar panels at community hospitals nationwide.
"This cooperation requires a 60-million-baht investment to provide the solar panel system and yearly maintenance for 40 community hospitals by 2032," said Eiichi Koito, president and chief executive of Mitsubishi Motors Thailand.
He was speaking yesterday during a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony for the "Solar for Lives" project between Mitsubishi, the Public Health Ministry, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation (TGO).
The project is forecast to help hospitals reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 17,300 tonnes over the next 10 years.
The solar panels, designed to generate electricity for 25 years, will also help a hospital reduce electricity expense by 400,000 baht a year.
There are more than 10,000 state-run hospitals in Thailand and most of them are community hospitals, said Dr Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, deputy permanent secretary for public health.
"The hospitals use a huge amount of electricity, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week," he said.
Stable energy supply will support community hospitals' plan to expand its services so that more people will have better access to medical treatment, said Dr Thongchai.
Solar for Lives can help the Public Health Ministry run sustainable energy development in hospitals and, in the wider context, it is part of the government's efforts to create a carbon-neutral society.
Carbon neutrality is a global campaign aimed to strike a balance between carbon dioxide emissions and absorption.
"We expect to install the first solar panel at Nampong Hospital in Khon Kaen in February," said Mr Koito.
Suttipong Chalermkiat, Egat's assistant governor for sustainability management, said that his organisation is willing to give technical support to solar panel installation while Kiatchai Maitriwong, executive director of TGO, applauded Solar for Lives for its good initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.