Problems and barriers on SHSs management in Thailand's rural areas based on SWOT analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of Solar Home System (SHS) project management in remote areas of Thailand and to identify problems and obstacles of community SHSs management. The proposed methodology is composed of a combination of qualitative and quantitative research that can improve the quality of life of community. The data are collected by using questionnaires with 94 peoples in four rural villages that used SHSs installation households in Mae Salong Nai sub-district in Chiang Rai Province. In-depth interview with 12 leaders of communities and community energy management experts is used to assess analysis of problems and barriers on SHS Management. Data are analyzed by descriptive statistics and presented in the form of percentage, average values and standard deviation. The survey results show that the major problem associated with Mae Salong Nai community is the knowledge of SHS including systematic operation and maintenance. The second problem is the policy on sustainable SHSs development on the central government. Therefore, this study is useful and able to verify that the study can be applied to design both the questionnaire and constraints in optimization technique for the further research in the topic of integrated modeling community management for SHSs.