BANGKOK, THAILAND – Today, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency announced the reopening of its program in Thailand with the goal of supporting the development of priority infrastructure projects in the energy, transportation, and telecommunications sectors, and helping to foster new commercial partnerships between the United States and Thailand.

“This is an important day for USTDA, and we are proud to reopen our program in Thailand,” said Thomas R. Hardy, USTDA’s Acting Director. “This is an ideal time to connect with new partners across the public and private sector and advance quality infrastructure in Thailand.”

To mark its reopening, USTDA awarded a grant to the Thailand-based renewable energy company Blue Solar to support the development of a solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant with an integrated energy storage system in Suphan Buri Province, northwest of Bangkok. The project represents one of the first private sector deployments of utility-scale battery storage in Thailand.

Adequate and affordable power supply is critical to meet growing energy needs and drive continued economic growth in Thailand. Implementation of the project will support Thailand’s goals to further increase the country’s clean energy mix, with new opportunities for U.S. firms to supply solar and energy storage solutions. The USTDA-funded study will help Blue Solar assess the project’s viability and deliver the designs and analysis required for financing and implementation. This partnership advances the U.S. government’s AsiaEDGE initiative to support sustainable and secure energy markets in the Indo-Pacific region.

“We are very grateful to USTDA for providing grant support for our project feasibility study,” said Blue Solar Managing Director Visait Hansaward. “It is our wish that our solar plus energy storage project shall prove that clean energy could achieve reliability and our country could expect renewable energy as a mainstream energy source in the near future.”

U.S. businesses interested in submitting proposals for the USTDA-funded feasibility study should visit the Federal Business Opportunities website at www.fbo.gov. A link to the FBO announcement will be posted to USTDA’s website at www.ustda.gov/work/bid-on-an-overseas-project.