In 2015, the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) approved the latest Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP) 2015–2036, targeting electricity generation from biomass, biogas, and municipal solid waste by 2036 towards the Thailand 4.0 policy. The small biomass power plants are intensively promoted, contributing to many more public concerns. Therefore, this study provided new insight using the readiness and resilience in the communities near the biomass power plant generation in Southern Thailand. The community readiness model (CRM) and community health impact assessment (CHIA) were adopted using mixed methods during January–November 2019. A total of 999 respondents replied to the questionnaires, 153 informants were interviewed, and the panel was discussed and analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings illustrated that all stakeholder sectors strengthened community-driven development based on the average community readiness (3.01 ± 0.11) in a vague awareness stage, only with participation in information giving (75.38%) and having an impact pain point score of 7.64 ± 0.54, which was a highly intense level used to develop the public policy towards biomass power plants. Recent advanced community tools offered new insights for the first time about community strategic plans for sustainable biomass power generation, to achieve community security and values of democracy in Southern Thailand.

For the first time, this article describes the novel process based on the integrated community health impact assessment (CHIA) for renewable energy technologies that have been globally accepted, such as a biomass power plant, to reduce health inequities in Southern Thailand. The co-design foresight study and participatory action research (PAR) using multiple qualitative methodologies, including key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and Delphi expert panels. The study was conducted the integrated approach during May-December 2019 in a small town, Southern Thailand. Strategic foresight enabled the community to identify future scenarios of enterprises, institutions, and others in the short, medium, and long term by analyzing internal and external factors. First, the compassionate communities served as a strategy to build support for individuals, schools, workplaces, civic organizations, and local governments to tackle health challenges surrounding severe problems. Second, community readiness played a role in assessing communities' adoption of mindfulness to deal with the biomass power plant. Third, the social and ecological effects presented the livelihood and living in the Southern region as the main determinants in modern energy utilization under Thailand's policy. These factors contributed to CHIA's entire process of producing health promotion, social learning, and public policy derived by the community. The findings of this study are geared towards providing advanced practical decision-support tools for stakeholders responsible for policy and investment decisions in a community near the biomass power plant constructions.