The future of mobility: Less or no mobility at all?
Transportation has evolved over time, from relying on human power alone, animal riding and wheels that improved the speed and range of mobility. Then came the steam engine, combustible engine, gas engine, even an electric motor. Transportation has become so essential for human lives, moving both people (passenger transport) and goods (freight transport).
Strong Cooperation and Enabling Policies can Lead Energy Transformation in Southeast Asia
Meeting future energy demand in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a high priority in the region. With current indigenous fossil fuel resources incompatible with climate and sustainable development goals, and the COVID-19 pandemic causing fuel price volatility and economic uncertainty, the region can now seize the moment to put renewable energy sources […]
Climate Change Is a Security Threat to the Asia-Pacific
This week the ASEAN Joint Task Force on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) will meet via video conference, with the COVID-19 pandemic escalating just as some countries in the disaster-prone Indo-Asia Pacific enter their cyclone, drought, heatwave, or monsoon seasons. The overlaying of the pandemic with existing complex challenges is a timely reminder that […]
The $16 billion plan to beam Australia’s Outback sun onto Asia’s power grids
SYDNEY — Could Australia, one of the world’s biggest exporters of coal and natural gas, become a solar superpower? The island continent, distant from Asia’s megacities, plans to capture the plentiful Outback sun, store it in giant batteries until nightfall and transmit it to Singapore along a watermelon-width cable traversing 2,800 miles of sea floor, including a […]
Covid-induced energy plunge shrinks coal development in Southeast Asia
Travel restrictions and obstruction of supplies borne out of the pandemic have fast-tracked the drop in new coal in a region considered one of the strongest growth markets for dirty energy, a new Global Energy Monitor report has found.
Is hydrogen missing piece in ASEAN’s energy mix?
Recent headlines have declared the potential of hydrogen to solve some of the key issues that limit the development of renewable energy and the goal of cleaning up emissions. The Wall Street Journal calls it the “new wonder fuel.” The BBC refers to a hydrogen “tech revolution,” and Forbes says it “may be the crucial […]
Business risk and COVID-19 are pushing Asian financiers away from coal
The use of coal as an energy source is steadily declining in the U.S. and Europe, but coal mining and the construction of coal-fired power plants continues across South and Southeast Asia. The technology and funding comes primarily from three countries — South Korea, Japan, and China — and is destined to nations including Indonesia, Vietnam, […]
Open Source Tech Improves Microgrids in Southeast Asia
In villages in Southeast Asia, a person often must sit inside a powerhouse to manually control the flow of water in small hydro microgrids to ensure the systems operate safely. “The operator will watch the system parameters and open or close the valve to the turbine to regulate the flow of water and therefore quantity of […]
