- Thailand has pushed back retiring several coal-fired units at the 2,400-MW Mae Moh power plant, keeping some units running until at least 2031 and refurbishing others to 2048, despite earlier closure plans.
- Mae Moh is Thailand’s biggest CO2 polluter, and also emits high levels of other air pollutants, which nearby communities have for decades blamed for respiratory and other illnesses.
- Extending the plant’s lifespan undercuts Thailand’s clean-air pledges and Paris Agreement targets as fossil fuels still dominate the power mix, while renewable growth remains slow.
- Residents are skeptical the plant will be shut as planned by 2050, and are demanding stronger mitigation, cleanup and health care as coal jobs remain a major part of the local economy.
MAE MOH, Thailand — Thailand has announced it will delay the decommissioning of several coal-fired units at the 2,400-megawatt Mae Moh power plant in Lampang province, prompting fears among communities who have dealt with health problems linked to the plant for decades.
The Aug. 21 announcement, made by the National Energy Policy Committee, also undermines pledges by the government to address the swirling air pollution crisis in the country.
Units 8 and 11 of the Mae Moh power plant, in Mae Moh district, were due to be retired at the end of 2025. But now both will remain functioning until 2031, while units 12 and 13 will be refurbished and operate until 2048 — just two years before the entire plant is due to shut down.
The decision to extend the lifespan of units in Mae Moh is part of Thailand’s bid to reduce reliance on fuel imports and keep energy costs down. But as the nation struggles to rein in air pollution that is estimated to kill between 25,432 and 32,200 people annually — a figure that hits 8.1 million globally — the decision also marks a continued dependence on burning coal. Although coal only made up 16.7% of Thailand’s energy mix in 2024, fossil fuels as a whole made up 85%, while wind and solar contributed just 5% of the estimated 199.5 terawatt-hours generated in 2024.
Coal-fired plants like the one in Mae Moh give Thailand access to cheap power, but they’re also responsible for contaminating the air and water with a mix of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxides like nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), mercury, lead and other heavy metals, along with dangerous particulates, leading to cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological disorders, as well as cancer and premature death.
UNICEF warned in January that the health of 13.6 million children is at risk as exposure to air pollution continues to rise across Thailand. Yet Thailand’s Draft Clean Air Act, which would guarantee Thais the right to clean air and introduce regulatory tools to combat emissions across polluting sectors, continues to languish in parliament amid political upheaval and conflict along the border with Cambodia.
Mae Moh power plant, owned and operated by the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), is ranked by Climate Trace as Thailand’s largest CO2 polluting project out of 54 projects assessed across 10 sectors, producing the equivalent of 14.81 million metric tons of CO2 each year over a 20-year Global Warming Potential time frame. That’s more than double the second-worst polluting power plant listed, and more than the emissions produced by both Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang international airports combined.
Data from the European Union’s Copernicus browser, which provides atmospheric satellite analysis of air composition, shows that between mid-January and the end of March, high levels of concentrated NO2 pollution surrounding the Mae Moh power plant spread more than 18,500 square kilometers (7,140 square miles) across the Thai provinces of Lampang, Phayao, Nan and Phrae, although NO2 pollution of a lower concentration also spread much farther afield.
The decision to extend the lifespan of two of Mae Moh’s units may run counter to Thailand’s emissions reduction commitment under the Paris climate agreement, also known as its nationally determined contribution (NDC). Thailand is due to submit its latest version, NDC 3.0, to the U.N. later this year, and it’s expected to include a set date for phasing out coal. The country’s previous NDC 2.0 plan was deemed “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker when it was submitted in 2022.
“For me, it’s almost like being thrown back into the past,” said Tara Buakamsri of Climate Connectors, an advocacy research group focused on environmental justice in Thailand. “I mean, if we’re talking about a just transition and creating a balance between the interests of the national utility like [the Mae Moh power plant] and a future-oriented national energy policy, shouldn’t there be other ways that don’t involve extending the coal phaseout or locking us into gas? And what about the new NDC 3.0 and net-zero targets — will we actually meet them, and if so, how?”
EGAT has, according to its website, installed devices at Mae Moh to reduce dust from the burning of coal, and upgraded units 8-13 and the replacement for unit 1 to reduce SO2 pollution by a reported 95-97%. It also says there’s other technology in place to address nitrogen oxide pollution. However, EGAT’s own data show that the Mae Moh coal plant is still emitting more SO2, nitrogen oxides and PM2.5 — particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — than any other power plant in the country assessed by EGAT.
While Buakamsri noted that some units at Mae Moh have, according to EGAT, been upgraded to reduce various emissions, he pointed out that Thailand doesn’t have smokestack emissions standards for mercury, and that a 2018 estimate from Greenpeace suggested that Mae Moh power plant releases 1,618.1 kilograms of mercury into the atmosphere each year. Thai academics estimated in 2020 that the plant was churning out 5.22-9.20 micrograms of mercury vapor per cubic meter. That’s well in excess of what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems the minimal risk level for mercury vapor is, at 0.2 µg/m3, and threshold limit value (a time weighted average for an eight-hour day), at 25 µg/m3.
The mercury emissions from Mae Moh spread out across Lampang province, contributing to the broader problem of air pollution that has engulfed northern Thailand, where industrial estates, the growing number of vehicles, and the burning of biomass are rendering the air deadly, especially during the spring burning season.
“It not only contributed to local air pollution but also transboundary one,” Buakamsri said.
Poisoned for power
According to EGAT, the Mae Moh power plant, along with the adjoining mine that supplies the plant with lignite — a low-grade form of coal — are both due to be shut down by 2050. However, local officials and Mae Moh residents told Mongabay they remain skeptical of EGAT’s claims and fear that profits and power generation will take precedence over human health and environmental protection.
“I’m not sure I’ll still be alive by 2050, I doubt whoever made that announcement at EGAT will still be alive — and only the people who are will know whether EGAT keeps its promise,” said Maliwan Nakwiroj, who goes by the nickname Joom and has lived for many years in close proximity to the plant.
Joom previously spoke with Mongabay about her community’s long fight with EGAT over health issues linked to pollution from the Mae Moh power plant and lignite mine. It began in the 1950s with the opening of the mine, which once covered 13,000 hectares (about 32,100 acres) and today spans nearly 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres). This was followed by the opening of the first coal-fired generator in 1978, with 12 more units built between 1979 and 2019. The first three units were retired in 2000, but the plant remains significant for Thailand’s energy production. In 2021, the plant supplied 50% of all electricity in northern Thailand, 30% to the central region, and 20% to the northeast.
Mae Moh’s eight remaining operational units use what the industry calls subcritical technology — capable of converting roughly 33-37% of coal it burns into energy. Newer plants run more the efficient “supercritical” systems, but a 2019 Australia Institute study found that even these still produce more emissions than most other sources of energy — especially when “brown coal” like lignite is burned.
Since the Mae Moh plant began running, residents have been locked into a decades-long dispute with EGAT over relocation away from the pollution and compensation for the myriad health issues experienced by those living in the surrounding area.
For years, EGAT denied that pollution from either the lignite mine or the coal plant were directly responsible for the respiratory illnesses that were ravaging nearby communities, even appealing a 2009 ruling by the Chiang Mai Administrative Court that found the state-owned utility needed to relocate communities living within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the projects due to the pollution and health hazards, as well as pay compensation for health care and lost livelihoods.
The case eventually came before Thailand’s Supreme Court in 2015, which upheld the lower court’s verdict and added more interest to the compensation owed to local residents. By then, however, more than 30 plaintiffs had died of their illnesses.
For those who lived, the compensation didn’t cover the health costs associated with their conditions.
“EGAT wanted to show the world that the way they mined was clean, that it wasn’t dangerous,” Joom said. “We needed to prove the health problems were linked to the power plant and the mine, but local doctors told us these were just common problems, so NGOs helped put us in touch with specialist doctors in Bangkok — about 130 people from 16 affected villages were randomly chosen to get tested.”
Multiple tests, X-rays, blood and urine samples confirmed the community’s suspicions: that the chemicals in Mae Moh’s air were to blame. All 130 villagers tested were found to have pneumoconiosis, or scarring of the lungs, caused by prolonged exposure to coal dust, SO2 and NO2.
“The plant and mine still operate today because it provides many benefits to the government, but to this day, there are around 45 villages — some 40,000 people — who live with the problems they’ve created,” Joom said. “I say to EGAT, if you think our water is clean, then drink it, eat the fish that smell so bad, we won’t touch them.”
Joom also raised suspicions about a new railway project that aims to connect the Thai provinces of Phrae, Phayao, Lampang and Chiang Rai to Laos’s Bokeo province, serving both tourism and goods shipment services. This, she said, could allow coal imports to sustain the power plant long after the Mae Moh lignite mine is exhausted; the plant is expected to continue operating until 2049. Data from the Department of Mineral Resources and the State Railway of Thailand show that the Den Chai–Chiang Rai–Chiang Khong dual-track railway will greatly improve connectivity between provinces that, collectively, contain Thailand’s largest reserves of lignite.
Compounding these fears is EGAT’s previous deals with the State Railway of Thailand to promote tourism around the lignite mine.
Mongabay made multiple attempts to contact EGAT, by phone, email and by delivering detailed questions in a letter to the utility’s head office in Bangkok. But as of the time of writing, there has been no reply.
‘I’ll have trouble breathing for the rest of my life’
Skepticism over whether EGAT will actually shut down the Mae Moh operation by 2050 is widespread across the district. And with more than 24 years left to run, local officials are demanding EGAT do more to mitigate their project’s pollution and safeguard the future of the local economy.
“We know the plan to close the plant in 2050, but EGAT has betrayed us before, so the 2050 closure is hard to believe,” Sunisa Thiyu, deputy mayor of Sop Pad subdistrict administrative organization in Mae Moh district, told Mongabay in her office overlooking the Mae Moh power plant. “I think that EGAT is seeking new sources of coal, they’ve surveyed our community’s lands, it’s possible that they’ll try to evict us, but we’ve learned from our long, painful history — my own father died here from emphysema, I have issues with asthma, so we will resist EGAT.”
There are dual fears: that EGAT may prolong its exit from Mae Moh; and that when it does leave, it will do so without cleaning up the environmental damage or helping retrain and care for the health of the community members who have kept the plant and the mine running.
“The livelihoods of our community have totally changed,” Thiyu said. “Before, we worked in agriculture, but EGAT blocked access to much of the land. Then the dust from the mine, the air pollution from the power plant, it gets into everything — rice doesn’t grow well, vegetables farmed here make people sick, we lost many freshwater species — but EGAT told us that water and air contamination hadn’t reached unsafe levels, even though our water sources have been swallowed up by the sediment pond of the power plant and smell so bad, it keeps us up at night.”
The filtration upgrades to the power plant are, to Thiyu, merely an excuse to keep burning coal. But EGAT’s presence in their community is now so entrenched that if the mine and power plant were to close, Lampang’s provincial gross domestic product would drop by an estimated 17%, Ketsirin Paengsen, the head of the Mae Moh Smart City project, which aims to develop a sustainable, renewables-led economy after the coal plant closes, said last year. Thiyu estimated that roughly 2,000 local residents have jobs at the power plant, while researchers in 2024 estimated 9,000 jobs were created by coal mining operations in Mae Moh, some 47% of the district’s population.
One former worker at the power plant for more than a decade told Mongabay that despite the personal protective equipment provided, they — and almost all other workers they knew — grew sick.
“Most stay silent, because they need the salary, but we all developed respiratory issues working at the power plant,” said the former employee, who requested anonymity over fears their family could be blacklisted from working for EGAT. “My doctor told me that I’ll have trouble breathing for the rest of my life. My throat hurts a lot, but for others it was worse — some got cancer and died.”
Mongabay was unable to verify whether cases of cancer among power plant employees were directly related to their jobs.
According to Thiyu, their protests against EGAT helped to secure the opening of a small hospital in Mae Moh (it’s unclear what EGAT’s role was), but the services remain limited due to a shortage of specialist staff. Many residents with respiratory illnesses are still referred to larger hospitals in Lampang or Chiang Mai. Few can afford the long-term care needed for the ailments they’ve acquired.
The needle may be moving in favor of renewables, but data from global energy think tank Ember show progress has been remarkably slow — particular when compared regionally. Thailand’s wind power generating capacity in 2013 was 300 megawatts, but had only grown to 3,600 MW by 2024, more than a decade later. Similarly, solar — for which Thailand has great potential — has only increased from 100 MW in 2011 to 6,100 MW in 2024. Vietnam, by contrast, saw wind power capacity jump from 500 MW in 2018 to 12,300 MW in 2024 while solar leapt from just 4,800 MW in 2019 to 25,900 MW in 2024.
EGAT is also in the process of constructing a 38.5 MW solar farm in Mae Moh, which it has said will be used to power the lignite mining activities, not for commercial purposes. According to Thiyu, this too was opposed by the community because it meant losing more land, instead of EGAT building atop rehabilitated mining land.
When Mongabay attempted to visit the solar farm, EGAT staff denied reporters and Thiyu entry.
But for all of EGAT’s efforts, there remains little faith among those who’ve lived with the impacts the Mae Moh project has brought about, even as air pollution garners more attention in Thai politics and among the public.
“I feel like Thai people still aren’t fully aware of the danger posed by air pollution — few outside of Mae Moh know our story,” Joom said.
“Whenever air pollution is discussed, like during burning season, everyone just blames the farmers — why not come here and blame EGAT? Burning season’s once a year, but the power plant is polluting our air all day every day.”
Banner image: The Mae Moh power plant is a major source of toxic emissions, yet its lifespan continues to be extended, even as air pollution festers across northern Thailand. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.
Citations:
Archer, D., Bhatpuria, D., Nikam, J., & Taneepanichskul, N. (2024). Particulate matter pollution in central Bangkok: Assessing outdoor workers’ perceptions and exposure. Cities & Health, 1-19. doi:10.1080/23748834.2024.2390274
Thepanondh, S., & Tunlathorntham, V. (2020). Appropriate scenarios for mercury emission control from coal-fired power plant in Thailand: Emissions and ambient concentrations analysis. Heliyon, 6(6), e04197. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04197
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