The Barriers Analysis for Waste-to-Energy Project Development in Thailand: Using an Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach

Waste-to-energy (WtE) is national policy. From this view, WtE technology has been promoted. Many WtE projects in Thailand were unsuccessful due to several problems. This research aimed to analyze the key barriers impacting the WtE project development in Thailand. The Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis tool have been used to evaluate the barriers that significantly in the development of WtE projects. In this study, WtE projects focused on electricity power generation in order to correspond to the Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP) target and power purchase agreement constrain of the government. The barriers were obtained from six sections consisting of social issues, environment, national policy, technology, economy, and project management. From six sections, there are 20 barriers that were identified. The ISM and MICMAC analysis showed that the key barriers impacting the WtE projects development were insufficient amount of waste and poor waste management planning. These two barriers correspond with many studies in Thailand and other countries. The project developers or investors must take these two barriers and other barriers with less impact mentioned in this study into account before developing the WtE projects in Thailand.