TPI Polene Power (TPIPP), the energy flagship of the Thailand-based TPI Polene Group, has established itself as a diversified industrial conglomerate with businesses spanning cement, building materials, speciality polymers, nitrates, bio-organics, WTE, and Green Energy.
Recently, International Finance recognised TPI as the “Most Innovative Diverse Energy Business Company – Thailand – 2025.” The company follows a simple business philosophy: T-echnology, P-roduct, and I-nnovation, and this rule has been codified into the company’s efforts.
TPIPP has broadened its operational portfolio, extending beyond waste-to-energy (WTE) fuelled principally by municipal solid waste (MSW) to utilities (oil/NGV petrol stations/EV charging stations), solar farms and roofs, and Alternative Fuel Resources (AFR) based on municipal waste.
Power has become TPIPP’s largest revenue-generating division (c.90%). The energy produced here runs on highly diversified fuel, with most of it in the form of renewables, such as recycled waste heat (WH) captured from the cement plant of the parent company TPI Polene, WTE using municipal solid waste, and solar farms and roofs.
“After multiple years of experimentation and fine-tuning of processes, our WTE-MSW power plants have arrived at a highly profitable cost curve. The current focus of our technical and engineering ingenuity is on the conversion of our 150MW coal-fired power plant into 100% MSW. Once completed, it will be the first conversion of its kind and scale in Southeast Asia. By 2026, TPIPP will be 100% fossil-free and will expand its pool of carbon-related merits from the current level of 2.5 million tCO2eq T-VER certified credits and 3.1 million Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs),” the venture told International Finance.
The conversion of the 220MW coal-fired power plant is ongoing. The project has been divided into six phases, and TPIPP is now at the tail end of phase six, with a 2025-end targeted completion timeline. TPIPP aims to make its power generation completely coal-free by 2026.
“So far, the modification programme is going smoothly. We are confident that we will be successful, and this would classify TPIPP as avant-garde in the conversion of coal-fired power plants to MSW. It would be a feat, the first of its kind. The know-how and learning accumulated from the experience can make TPIPP a resource for other power generators currently operating coal-fired power plants in the region, especially in Southeast Asia,” TPIPP noted further.
TPIPP, which believes that coal-fired power plants need not become stranded assets amidst the global push towards ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and sustainability, continued, “Our solar power farms and roofs are cost-minimising programmes and also assist TPIPL in its strategic move towards Green Cement & Building Material Products. With solar power, TPIPL’s offtake from the national grid will be reduced, enhancing its green credentials.”
The issue of battery storage for the solar farms has been installed. This installation extends the solar power supply into the night, further reducing offtake from the main grid, apart from enhancing the green credentials of the cement and building materials produced. TPIPP, in April 2025, entered into a agreement with Jinko ESS (a globally leading PV module manufacturer and energy storage system integrator) to set up a 25MWh energy storage plant.
“Our Utilities division mainly supports TPIPL’s logistics and distribution capabilities. TPIPL is electrifying its logistics and distribution vehicles, and TPIPP’s petrol/NGV and EV charging stations are strategically located along the regular routes of TPIPL’s vehicles,” the business remarked.
Alternative fuel resources have become a natural extension of TPIPL’s MSW operations. One of the many moves TPIPL is pursuing to produce “Green Cement” and “Building Materials Products” is to substitute coal in its clinker production with MSW.
“These further drive increases in MSW. Currently, TPIPP processes close to 10,000 tons per day of raw waste. When the various programmes are completed, the daily drawdown of waste will rise to 14,000 tons per day. With our power plants and AFRs, TPIPP will be a significant contributor to addressing the ever-growing problem of household waste. This is another pathway where we contribute to the betterment of society,” the company said, continuing, “Because our daily intake of municipal waste is high and our power plants are in a single location, we can support the livelihoods of residents in many communities. Where landfills are becoming an issue, we also assist the local government by supporting the efforts of its indigents to gather garbage from which calorific values can be extracted. We now have documented cases showing the benefits we can bring to communities.”
TPIPP has also started the rollout of its two WTE-MSW capacities (c.10MW). One will be in Songkhla (south), with Mukdahan (northeast) being the other. Each project will use the municipal waste produced in the area, about 500 tons per day, thus eliminating the need to allocate space for a landfill. These projects will be completed in 2025 and 2026, respectively.