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Despite the rapid growth in the uptake of renewable energy technologies, the educational profile and the skills gained at University level do not always comply with the practical needs of the organisations working in the field. Furthermore, even though the residential sector has very high potential in curbing its CO2 emissions worldwide thus meeting the challenging goals set out by the international agreements, such reduction has been limited so far. Within this context, the ‘Skybelt’ project, co-funded by the EU under the framework of the Erasmus + programme aims at enhancing in several Universities of Asia and Europe the engineering skills of students of all level for application of sustainable renewable energy solutions in the built environment. With the target of increasing the employability of graduates and the impact of the project, a survey on the labour market needs for specialists with enhanced knowledge and skills in the topic of the project has been conducted in the related Asian countries. Hence, relevant industries, labour market organisations and other stakeholders have been interviewed and the main results of this analysis is reported in the present paper. As first outcome of this activity, the obtained results have been considered in the selection of the modules to be improved according to a student centred study approach.

This paper presents an analysis of energy saving and changes in energy intensities in Thai manufacturing sector by Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index decomposition technique. This method includes three effects consists of the energy intensity effect, the structural effect and the effect of the economic growth on the energy consumption in Thailand by using the 25-year annual data from 1990 to 2014, carried out in four phases; (i) before National Energy Conservation law, (ii) during the effect of the law, (iii) Transition period of the law from first to second version, and (iv) during the effect of the law (No.2). We found that the most effective intensity effect is in the third phase due to the effect of the implementation of new energy efficient equipment from the second phase by enforcement of the law, especially in non-metallic sector, while the first phase illustrates the lowest intensity effect due to the energy conservation law had not been occurred. However, due to the highest economic growth of the country and change from agricultural to industrial development direction, the first phase presents the most effective structural effect, then this effect continuously decreased by time. We also conclude that the energy conservation law have direct effect to energy efficiency of the country however, strictly individual regulation which have target to enforce to energy intensive industries is still required for sustainable energy efficiency improvement.

First biogas pipeline network has been well established in southern Thailand. About 1,273 households, accountable for about 87% of the total of 1,466 households in the district, get the benefits from biogas energy in many ways. Key success to this initiative is the collaboration between all parties, i.e., swine farm owners, households, and government officials. Swine farm owners are responsible for the design and construction of the biogas plants. Households pay some contributions regarding labor work and maintenance cost on biogas system and its pipeline network. Government officials are responsible for financial and technical supports to both parties. Indeed biogas energy offers an alternative source of heat energy for cooking fuel in this region.

This study focuses in the developing energy sector plan of city-level climate change master plan in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand. The energy consumption, which consists of electricity and fossil fuels, are investigated and forecasted to be Business-as-Usual (BaU) scenario covering year 2013 to 2023 by using trend analysis. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission mitigation scenario was then analyzed by applying the energy reduction from the national energy efficiency development plan as well as the own reduction activities by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA). We can conclude that if the national energy efficiency plan can fully implemented, the GHG reduction potential of the city from energy sector would be at around 18% from BAU in 2023 from all energy conservation and renewable energy measures.