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Yeo Bee Yin: Malaysia has no immediate plan to impose carbon pricing

10 July 2019

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Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (July 10): Malaysia has no immediate plan to impose carbon pricing on industry players, because there are other prior actions that can be taken to reduce carbon emission, such as improving energy efficiency on existing processes before such regulation is introduced, Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin said today.

“More than 50% of electricity [in Malaysia] is [consumed] by buildings. If we actually focus on these lower hanging fruits [of improving consumption efficiency], it is much more efficient.

“Of course I have a lot of environmental regulations coming in. But my thought is simple: Do not make things unreasonably difficult for industry players for the sake of the ideal,” Yeo said here today at the World Economic Forum’s roundtable discussion on Malaysia’s energy landscape.

On environmental regulation for businesses, she referred to the proposed Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, which she hopes will be presented to the Parliament early next year at the latest.

Malaysian government data shows that in 2011, carbon dioxide accounted for 72% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emission, of which nearly half is produced by coal-heavy electricity generation sector.

Coal

Vietnam Needs to Break Its Addiction to Chinese Coal

10 July 2019

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Vietnam

When it comes to the effects of global climate change, Vietnam is one of the world’s most at-risk nations. Rising sea levels threaten to inundate both the Mekong and Red River Deltas, potentially impacting tens of millions of people. Vietnam is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world, growing by 7.1 percent in 2018. While it has benefited from investors’ anxieties over growing U.S.-China trade war, Vietnam has been on the up and up for the past several decades, led by its export-driven manufacturing sector. As an emerging market, the country is now seen to have great promise; however, Vietnam must take steps to balance this growth with a potential future prosperity that is inextricably linked to its environmental security. The country’s energy sector will play a key role in this, as it is necessary to facilitate Vietnam’s appetite for growth as well as a key determinant of the nation’s willingness to tackle climate change.

At the Paris climate talks in 2015, the Vietnamese government pledged to reduce its emissions by eight percent by 2030. The pledge falls under the projected linear trajectory and will prove challenging to marry with the country’s economic growth targets. To feed its growing energy demands, Vietnam has turned to coal-fired power generation, with the government expecting coal usage to increase fivefold by 2030. The use of coal has increased Vietnam’s national carbon emissions and is worsening air quality in many of its major cities. Hanoi is now comparable to Beijing in terms of air pollution, with its annual average air pollution being four times higher than the level deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization.

In many ways Vietnam mirrors the People’s Republic of China in the 1980s and 1990s, when the Chinese Communist Party opted to dismiss environmental concerns in its obsessive pursuit of economic growth targets. Only recently has China realized the incipient consequences of its policy decisions and begun to mitigate them. Vietnam is at a crossroads. It can either learn from the mistakes of its neighbour to the north or fall into a similar trap of unsustainable growth and environmental degradation.

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Conveniently, Vietnam holds tremendous potential to utilize renewables instead of dirty fossil fuels. Vietnam has an estimated solar potential of six to 10 times what the United States currently has installed. The government has already made promising moves in this direction by introducing favorable policies such as purchasing power agreements and tax incentives that can encourage foreign investment into the country’s renewables sector. It is also piloting a promising new technology, floating solar cells, which leverage the country’s sizable existing hydro-electric infrastructure. Vietnam possesses natural endowments that could enable it to become a global leader in the solar energy.

And yet, despite its capacity for a revolution in renewable energy, the Vietnamese government is moving forward in two directions, with a continued focus on coal. In addition to its environmental and human health issues, Vietnam’s growing dependence on Chinese coal imports also presents important geopolitical questions over the country’s future energy security. As part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing has made significant investments into the energy sectors of countries across Asia. According to a report by the World Resources Institute and Boston University, over 60 percent of those investments have gone toward fossil fuel projects, while only 6 percent have gone toward renewables. Through constructing new energy infrastructure, especially coal-fired power plants, China is building its soft power over neighboring countries.

China’s significant investments into Pakistan’s energy grid provide a clear example of how capable Beijing is of leveraging the surging energy demands of neighboring countries to exert greater influence over their governments and economies. While Chinese coal is alluring as a cheap and flexible power source, the Vietnamese government must also be cautious about affording China too much control over its national grid infrastructure.

Vietnam’s primary alternative to Chinese coal is renewables. Renewable energy will allow it to feed its growing demand for power in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner, while also allowing for greater autonomy over its national infrastructure. In other sectors, such as telecoms, emerging economies have demonstrated a remarkable ability to leapfrog traditional technologies and embrace new ones. If Vietnam can successfully do this with its energy sector, it could achieve a sustainable growth trajectory that would be a model for other countries to follow. In order to achieve this, Vietnamese government must do something that most governments struggle to do — place the interests of its future above the fast rewards of the present.

Brian Malczyk is the Executive Director of the Center for Development and Strategy.

Tim Robinson is the Editor-in-Chief at the Center for Development and Strategy.

Renewables

Vietnam: Power, Energy, And The Affect Of Recent Trade Agreements EU Vietnam Free Trade And Investment Protection Agreement And The Comprehensive And Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement

10 July 2019

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Vietnam

Vietnam has had major stressors placed upon its power and energy grid for years, and it is only accelerating. At a recent April, 2019 conference on renewable energy in Ho Chi Minh City, experts noted that annual energy consumption in [Vietnam] had risen by 10 per cent in recent years, and the country was at risk of facing power shortages in the 2020s. Several factors have had an impact on this event a 2018 Harvard University study dubbed, “a crisis of success”. The major contributing factor was inefficiencies in the utilization of energy resources and infrastructure. Over time, these inefficiencies have compounded the problem Vietnam faces now with their entry into the European Union—Vietnam Free Trade (EVFTA) and Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agreements. Luckily, those challenges may be alleviated if Vietnam changes their regulatory environment and embraces a new operating paradigm based on a global trade perspective. The transition may at times be turbulent, but necessary for Vietnam to achieve robust, sustainable development to meet their future needs.

Renewable Energy under EVFTA and CPTPP

Both the CPTPP (Chapter 20) and EVFTA (Chapter 13) require the parties to mitigate any damaging effects to the environment by trade practices and to incorporate any other treaties the parties are signatories of into the agreements. As Vietnam and the other parties of both the EVFTA and CPTPP are signatories to the United Nations Paris Agreement of 2015, this means Vietnam is required to reduce its traditional coal-fired power plants in favor of cleaner or renewable energy sources. The EVFTA and CPTPP specifically mention renewable energy as the preferred alternative, and the parties all agree to promote trade to that end.

Vietnam has been making strides to address their energy utilization situation such as the Power Development Master Plan for the 2011-2020 Period with the Vision to 2030 (revised PDMP VII). PDMP VII, for example, sets out to increase energy supply from solar power from the current negligible rate to 0.5% by 2020 and 3.3% by 2030, or, 850MW solar capacity by 2020, increasing to 12GW by 2030. PDMP VII is coal-centric, which is counter to what both the EVFTA and CPTPP call for. One reason for the coal-centric approach is that it is established, known, and cheaper—it is the path of least resistance—which is one reason why Vietnam does not place tariffs on imported coal from the US, but it does place a 20 per cent tax on its own domestic offshore natural gas (which is by-far a cleaner alternative). PDMP VII also sets forth the goal of universal connectivity to the national power grid for all of Vietnam by 2030. It is a lofty goal, but it is achievable. The best chance of success for the 2030 goal is to restructure the regulatory environment to favor and exploit renewable energy sources. PDMP VIII is the next evolution for Vietnam’s energy strategy (slated for year-end 2019) and—keeping with the global investment mind-set—Vietnam should have a blend of private and public sector representation on that advisory board to ensure CPTPP and EVFTA renewable requirements and opportunities are fully integrated.

Against this backdrop, how can the EVFTA and CPTPP help Vietnam achieve sustainable energy development? Concerns from the private sector have always plagued Vietnam’s regulatory framework. Permitting, risk-allocation, land use impediments, financing, and investment protection have been major causes for project derailment in the past. The regulatory environment has been the biggest hindrance to successful exploitation and integration of renewable energy. However, Solar Power holds particular promise.

Solar Renewable Power

Solar power (according to PDMP VII) is to provide the second-largest amount of renewable energy in Vietnam by 2030—at 3.3 per cent. That figure should be adjusted higher with the incorporation of a more aggressive renewable plan in PDMP VIII. On a macro-level, solar farms are becoming more and more prevalent in Vietnam’s southern regions with most of them being developed by foreign investment. Major investors in Vietnam in the approval, construction, or completion stage include
German ASEAN Power, B.Grimm Power Public Co Ltd, Trina Solar, Schletter Group, and JA Solar, to name a few. Twenty-five solar farms have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with EVN, not to mention another 221 projects are awaiting approval, with a combined 13,000MW of potential output. Reuters, Inc. suggests that Vietnam’s electricity sector will be bigger than Britain’s by mid-2020s.

EVFTA and CPTPP Impacts on Solar Sector

The driving force behind this level of investment so far has been the CPTPP (notably Japan and Korea); however, with the recent enactment of the EVFTA, further investment and expansion is a realistic expectation as there are no foreign-ownership restrictions placed on investors in those agreements. Furthermore, the European Union—Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) grants specific safeguards for investors regarding the free transfer of capital based on foreign exchange convertibility as well as dispute resolution governed by international arbitration rules. These have been points of contention in the past for EU investors. On a broader scale, Vietnam, the EU, and the CPTPP signatories will all benefit as reduced tariffs and duties on the machinery and hardware to produce solar facilities will make it more cost-effective to develop that sector. Large-scale investment should be noticeable in the immediate future, and should be the definitive driver after five years when Vietnam removes restrictions on local-content and domestic partnering requirements in the EVFTA. Engineering services from the EU to support renewable infrastructure will also thrive as restrictions on that service in Vietnam are relaxed, promoting technical expertise and experience exchange and cooperation. These services will be especially crucial in upgrading and enhancing Vietnam’s grid capacity to maximize renewable energy integration into it.

Vietnam is making progress on changing their regulatory framework for renewable energy utilizing input from the private sector. An example is the latest change to the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) regulations for connectivity to EVN national grid. Up until 30 June 2019, there was a flat FIT of US $0.0935/kWh regardless of size or scope of project. The low FIT coupled with high investment costs in newer technologies has always been a point of contention for private developers. As of 01 July 2019, the FIT system was revamped and broken-down by type of solar project and zones of irradiance.

The regional scheme is determined by annual levels of irradiance and is broken-down into four regions. Regions with higher irradiance are imposed a lower FIT while remote regions with lower irradiance are imposed a higher FIT. This is a direct result of government responding to private investors’ concerns.

Rooftop Solar PV (less than 1 MWp)

The FIT schedule also applies to smaller-scale solar rooftop development. According to Vietnam Electricity (EVN), 1,800 customers, including offices, businesses and households, are installing rooftop solar systems with a total capacity of 30.12 MWp. In Ho Chi Minh City, EVN has installed rooftop solar systems with a total capacity of nearly 1,130 kWp and is continuing to deploy other systems. EVN general director indicated this amount was far below the potential of Vietnam, and directly attributed the reason to a lack of specific regulations about electricity purchases when households connect their solar power systems to the national grid. The previous flat FIT applied to rooftop solar generating less than 1 MWp as well, but was a convoluted regulatory situation on how-and-who-gets-paid-when. Now, new rooftop solar constructed or installed on or after 01 July 2019 that generates less than 1 MWp has the option of: 1) negotiating their own price between buyer and seller (as long as the project is not connected to EVN national grid) or 2) accepting the FIT schedule for the region it is located in and connecting to the EVN grid.

This is a major change and development for the solar market. The Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA / PPA) allows for individuals or organizations to install rooftop solar projects and sign their own buy/sell contracts among other individuals or organizations without connecting to the EVN national grid. Any excess power generated may be sold to EVN at the established FIT for the region. This can have an enormous impact on the load capacity of the current EVN grid by reducing demand on it.

The rooftop solar sector will be a key part of the puzzle in rectifying Vietnam’s energy inefficiencies. With EVFTA and CPTPP countries enjoying reduced or no tariffs on hardware and other products to support the rooftop solar sector, coupled with the regulatory reforms, it should only be a matter of time before there is a PV panel on every residential and commercial rooftop in Vietnam.

Summary

Vietnam has been struggling with efficiently growing and sustaining its energy and power infrastructure. The regulatory environment has traditionally been one of the major hindrances to private investors in infrastructure development. Although there is always a certain amount of uncertainty in any project of this nature, both the public and private sectors would serve their communities greatly by coming to a reasoned solution that suits both. There has been notable progress by Vietnam on this regulatory-front, such as PMDP VIII and the revised FIT and DPPA. Hopefully there will be much more to come in the latter-half of 2019 and into 2020. The CPTPP and EVFTA agreements have been (and will be) a major factor in Vietnam’s infrastructure development goals. Utilizing those agreements and advice and input from the private sector, Vietnam’s power and energy situation will be poised to efficiently and effectively capitalize on its enormous potential—especially with renewables.

Electricity/Power Grid

Jonan encourages PLN to study China’s electricity network system

10 July 2019

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Indonesia

Beijing (ANTARA) – Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Minister Ignasius Jonan encouraged the management of PT PLN to study China’s electricity network system that is more effective and efficient, so it is available to people at affordable prices.

“Friends should learn a lot here. Why? Here, the proportion of energy lost, known as shrinkage, reaches some six percent, while ours is at 9.2 percent,” he told ANTARA after attending the 6th Indonesia-China Energy (ICEF) Forum in Beijing on Tuesday night (July 9).

PLN incurs losses owing to the energy lost during the process of transmission of electrical energy from sub-stations to customers, or so-called shrinkage.

With shrinkage of merely six percent, China is able to offer electricity to consumers at much cheaper prices than those in Indonesia, with shrinkage of 9.2 percent.

“This is what we encourage. Why cannot we emulate them? ‘Lah wong’ the technology used is the same,” the former transportation minister noted.

Jonan believes that a three-percent reduction in network shrinkage in Indonesia, from nine to six percent, will help to lower electricity tariffs in Indonesia or perhaps be similar to that in China where prices are affordable and the supply is smooth, so blackouts are rare, disparate to Indonesia.

The minister pointed out that China optimally utilizes all its existing energy potential, including wind, geothermal, nuclear, gas, and coal, to produce electricity. In spite of having abundant coal production and high-quality calorie content, China continues to import it from Indonesia.

“China’s coal production reaches three billion tons annually, but the yearly requirement is 3.5 tons, so 500 thousand tons is from us. We own 600 thousand tons of production,” he noted.

However, in terms of quality, coal products in Indonesia are less as compared to China since the land structure in mainland China is older.

At the ICEF, Jonan also highlighted the possibility of studying more modern renewable energy technologies in China.

“Several of our ‘grid’ systems are called ‘smart grids,’ so if we start large ‘renewable’ plants that use water, geothermal, and wind sources, we are ‘confused,’ as the transmission control system for our distribution is not ready,” the alumnus of the Faculty of Economics of Airlangga University (Unair) Surabaya explained.

ICEF is an Indonesia-China bilateral forum held every two years. The 5th ICEF was held in Indonesia in 2017. At this year’s ICEF in Beijing, Indonesia had sent at least 50 delegates from the ESDM Ministry, PT PLN, PT PGN, PT Pertamina, and others, to meet with partners from China on July 8-10, 2019.

After attending the ICEF, the Indonesian delegation, led by Jonan, met with several Indonesian citizens at the Wisma Duta Indonesian Embassy in Beijing to provide insights into national energy.

During a meeting facilitated by Indonesian Ambassador to China Djauhari Oratmangun, the ESDM Ministry played several videos on the availability of energy across the archipelago, interspersed with a question and answer session with Jonan.

“I have met the Chinese ambassador in Indonesia. I encourage graduates from here to take part in Indonesia, as there were many from the West and Japan,” Jonan noted.

Renewables

Tawi-tawi gets 1st floating solar farm

9 July 2019

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Philippines

MANILA — The fishing island of Sibutu in Tawi-tawi Province will be the first fishing community with a floating solar farm to power ice-making and cold storage equipment, and serve as a fish convergence area or “Payao”.

In a meeting on Monday with executives of Aboitiz Power led by Tristan Aboitiz and Regional Directors of the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) at the DA central office, Sibutu Island was unanimously chosen to be the site of the multi-function floating solar farm.

The floating solar farm, a new technology employed by solar power generation companies so as to minimize the use of valuable lands, is now being introduced in the Philippines by the Norwegian company SN Power in partnership with Aboitiz Power.

The partner companies have established the first prototype in Magat Dam, Isabela which is capable of generating 200MW.

DA Secretary Emmanuel Piñol learned about the new technology and proposed improving this to enhance the productivity of the fisheries sector.

Piñol said that while fishermen in remote and isolated islands of the country could catch a huge volume of fish, the absence of ice and cold storage discourages them from catching more than what their family could consume.

During the meeting, Aboitiz Power executives said the Floating Solar Farms could be improvised to generate enough power to run ice-making and cold storage facilities in far-flung and isolated fishing communities of the country; generate power which could be stored in batteries to provide light to the fishing communities; serve as a huge Fish Aggregating Device or “Payao” where small fish species would gather and attract big fish species like Tuna; and function as a fish cage in coves or near the coastlines for the production of high value fish.

It was agreed upon that the Floating Solar Farm prototype will be funded by the DA-BFAR with an estimated cost of PHP20-million and is expected to be completed in four months. (PNA)

Renewables

Renewable energy alliance urges Duterte to veto Legarda solar firm’s franchise bill

9 July 2019

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Philippines

An alliance of renewable energy developers has asked President Rodrigo Duterte to veto a bill seeking to grant a 25-year franchise to the solar energy firm owned and operated by the son of Antique Representative Loren Legarda.

The Developers of Renewable Energy for AdvanceMent Inc. (DREAM), sent a letter to Duterte appealing for the President’s to reject House Bill 8179 or the Solar Para sa Bayan Corporation (SPBC) franchise bill.

DREAM consists of various associations whose members are developers of renewable energy projects, including the Philippine Solar Power Alliance, Biomass Renewable Energy Alliance, PhilHydro Association Inc., Wind Energy Developers Association of the Philippines, and the National Geothermal Association of the Philippines.

“We hope that the President will not sign the Mega-Franchise Bill to law as it would not be beneficial to the Filipino people,” DREAM said in a letter dated June 25.

“While it seems that the bill has a noble purpose of providing electricity services, its true nature violates the guarantee of due process and equal protection in the Constitution and encourages anti-competitive practices.”

The alliance also claimed that the bill intends to benefit only SBPC, a private corporation owned and operated by Leandro Leviste.

GMA News Online reached out to presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo for a statement but has yet to receive a reply as of this posting.

DREAM said there is no “substantial distinction between SBPC and other power companies that have more capacity, resources, experience, and capability to operate distributable power technologies and mini-grid systems.”

“Allowing one private company to have the single responsibility of electrifying remote and unviable villages in the Philippines practically eases out any potential competition that could offer the same or even better service to the Filipino people,” it added.

The group warned that eliminating competition would potentially result in lack of innovation and improvement in electricity services leading to an increase in power rates in areas “which are likely inhabited by people who do not have the financial capability to pay unfairly priced services.”

“By approving this legislative franchise, the recipients of these electric services in remote and unviable villages would suffer from the effects of anti-competitive practices that the bill ironically seeks to promote,” DREAM said.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and “numerous” administrative issuances already provide for existing mechanisms that address the problem of electrification of isolated areas, the alliance added.

GMA News Online has also contacted Leandro Leviste for a statement on this development, but has not received any reply as of this posting.

Ratified by Congress last month, the bill allows the solar power firm to construct, install, establish, operate and maintain distributable power technologies and minigrid systems in the country.

The bill requires SPBC to operate its distributable power technology (DPT) and minigrid systems in the least cost manner and to provide open and non-discriminatory access to its DPT and minigrid systems for any end-user within the franchise area.

Under the Constitution, any bill that is neither signed nor vetoed by the President will automatically lapse into law 30 days after it was forwarded by Congress. —VDS, GMA News

Others

ASEAN, EU to enhance cooperation on Environment and Climate Change

9 July 2019

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ASEAN

BANGKOK, 9 July 2019 – At the launch of a High-Level Dialogue on Environment and Climate Change in Bangkok yesterday, Senior Officials from ASEAN and the European Union (EU) reaffirmed the commitment to strengthen cooperation between ASEAN and the EU on shared regional and global challenges related to protection of the environment and climate change.

Ms. Astrid Schomaker, Director for Global Sustainable Development at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment, and Mr. Hazri Hassan, Director for International Policy at the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources who also represented Singapore as the ASEAN-EU Country Coordinator, delivered the joint Opening Statements.

As agreed in the Joint statement of the 22nd ASEAN-EU ministerial meeting in January 2019, the dialogue will provide space for exchanges of best practices and lessons learned, assessing progress towards relevant environmental and climate goals, and designing enabling conditions at regional scale.

At the meeting, ASEAN and the EU approved the jointly adopted Objectives and Working Arrangements for the Dialogue as a new milestone in their relationship, building the foundation for further growth and exploring new joint projects on environment and climate change.

The officials then discussed the main areas of cooperation which addressed mitigation, adaptation, long-term strategies and sustainable finance in relation to climate change.

They also discussed other environment issues, conservation of natural resources, water and biodiversity, waste management, plastics and marine litter.

Further, Sustainable Cities and Communities, addressing ‘SMART Green ASEAN Cities,’ and focusing on smart solutions enabled by digitalization and use of technologies were deliberated.

One highlight in this regard was the presentation of the executive summary of findings and recommendations of a recently conducted regional gap-analysis on the state of circular economy for plastics in ASEAN Member States.

The analysis, conducted by a team of experts from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, developed a knowledge base for follow-up actions by the EU to inspire and assist circular economy approaches to plastic issues in the ASEAN region.

Equitable investment in human capital is vital for Thailand’s future — Further, Sustainable Cities and Communities, addressing ‘SMART Green ASEAN Cities,’ and focusing on smart solutions enabled by digitalization and use of technologies were deliberated.

The EU shared its longstanding experience on waste management and circular economy. In its 2018 Plastics Strategy, the European Union has committed to assist other regions in shifting towards a circular economy for plastics and both regions agreed to tackle this problem together. Both sides agreed that the issue of plastic waste export deserves special attention and urgent action.

The High-Level Dialogue was supported by the Enhanced Regional EU-ASEAN Dialogue Instrument (E-READI), a development cooperation program that facilitates dialogues between the EU and ASEAN in priority policy areas of joint interest. Drawing on the EU’s experience of regional integration, the E-READI policy dialogue facility further strengthens both the ASEAN regional integration process as well as the overall ASEAN-EU partnership.

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967. The Member States of the Association are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. On 31 December 2015, the ASEAN Community was formally established. The ASEAN Secretariat is based in Jakarta.

Others

PTT prepares to test Thailand’s market for electric motorcycles

9 July 2019

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Thailand

Thailand’s state energy firm PTT is set to launch its first 10 electric motorcycles as it tests the local market this year.

The company said it has received 3,000 orders for the electric motorcycles. It will adjust the cost of its electric motorcycles to about 70,000 baht ($2,280) per unit to gain a commercial sales volume benefit.

Wittawat Svasti-Xuto, chief technology and engineering officer, said PTT’s involvement in electric motorcycles follows the group’s support of Thai start-up Etran, which is a designer and developer of electric motorcycles, to test the market.

“The investment in the electric motorcycle business is in line with PTT’s strategy to invest in the electricity value chain,” he said.

“Initially, we admit that the investment cost in manufacturing electric motorcycles is still high at about 100,000 baht per unit. We plan to reduce the manufacturing cost for each electric motorcycle to about 70,000 baht to support its commercial purpose,” said Wittawat.

“So far, we have received orders from interested customers for about 3,000 units.”

He said that to test the market, the group’s start-up has ordered the manufacturer to make 10 electric motorcycles under a sub-contract manufacturing agreement. As the motorbikes are not being mass produced yet, the retail price is still high.

However, if the price is reduced to about 70,000 baht per unit, they could be more easily sold, Wittawat said.

The investment plan for electric motorcycles is one example of the directions that PTT is going following a reshuffle aimed at embracing disruptive technology, as well as the changing behaviour of consumers. THE NATION (THAILAND)

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Renewable Energy under EVFTA and CPTPP

Solar Renewable Power

EVFTA and CPTPP Impacts on Solar Sector

Rooftop Solar PV (less than 1 MWp)

Summary

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