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Andrew Ng Kay Lup and Lai Yee Qing were among 25 awardees in the Green Talents Competition 2019, organised by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to promote the exchange of innovative green ideas.
The two travelled to Berlin in October, where they presented their projects to a group of international researchers united in their focus of improving sustainability in various industries.
They will also be invited back to Germany in 2020 for a fully-funded research stay at an institution of their choice.
Ng, a Universiti Malaya PhD holder in chemical engineering, won over the Green Talents jury with his work on organic-based perovskites, a sustainable battery alternative for automobiles which promises greater horsepower and reduced weight and charging times.
Similarly, Lai impressed the judges with her research on improving industrial thermal energy efficiency through the innovation of existing heat exchanger networks.
This, in turn helps manufacturers reduce the emission of greenhouse gases while saving costs.
Both scientists were acknowledged for their significant and practical contributions towards building greener industries that inflict less harm on the planet.
In an email interview with Malay Mail, Ng said he was “elated” to be among the winners and called upon Malaysians to harness sources of renewable energy for a sustainable future.
“Malaysia is a land that is constantly filled with sunlight, yet it is underutilised,” he said.
“I hope Malaysia will be a nation that has this awareness not just by talk and no walk, but to be committed to reaching out for new sustainable technologies and enforcing environmental policies.
“We should also be fully investing in the raising of more future experts in addressing these issues.”
Lai, who is currently pursuing a PhD in chemical engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, was grateful for the networking opportunity that she got as a result of coming out on top of the competition.
“Forums like this provide opportunities for researchers with the same goal from all over the world to meet, interact, and connect with each other,” she added.
“We can gain insight into the research landscape worldwide, see the research focus and direction in other countries, and even collaborate with each other to result in better findings.”
The young scientist also hoped to see more environmental awareness amongst Malaysians, particularly with regard to sustainable development.
“Nowadays, the Internet has made information easily accessible. We have lots of information about environmental risks and the importance of energy conservation.
“The challenge is how to put sustainability into practice.”
Ng and Lai were among 25 researchers selected for the Green Talents Competition this year, which saw over 800 applicants from 97 countries sending in their ideas for shaping a sustainable future.
The programme is held under the patronage of the German minister of education and research Anja Karliczek and has been providing a platform for young scientists to share their findings since 2009.
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A new report has been released looking at the Rapid Environmental and Social Assessment of Geothermal Development in Conservation Forest Areas in Indonesia.
The report, through a micro-level assessment, reviewed 15 existing Indonesian geothermal energy projects to develop improved insight into the key risks and impacts typically associated with geothermal power development in forest areas. Based on the risks and impacts identified during this study, this report makes recommendations on risk avoidance and mitigation.
Through a macro-level assessment of the officially published 330 geothermal resource potential points for Indonesia, the report determined the environmental and social risk rankings for every individual point.
The ultimate objective is to further stimulate the development of a clean energy source in Indonesia by de-risking it through up-front avoidance of high-risk areas and effectively mitigating social and environmental impacts through good operational management.
Unlocking Indonesia’s geothermal power potential, has been constrained by policy restrictions, implementation challenges, lack of capacity, environmental and social issues, permitting delays, a history of low energy pricing, and a lack of capital investment in exploration and project development. To address these many constraints, the Government of Indonesia has put major efforts into promoting geothermal development with initiatives such as the Roadmap of Geothermal Development 2012–2025 and a new policy, tariff and law in 2014. The new law, Geothermal Law No. 21, declassified geothermal energy as a mining activity allowing for its development in conservation areas not previously accessible for development.
Most geothermal potential in Indonesia is in or close to forest areas. This has raised societal concerns about environmental and social impacts, especially in forests that play an important role in supplying fresh water, harbour endangered wildlife, or have high cultural or religious values. Environmental and social impacts and risks associated with geothermal power development are complex and significant and the degree to which these risks and impacts vary between geothermal power projects is not well understood.
The new study was undertaken to build a better understanding of environmental and social risks from the perspective of both the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
“Both ministries could build upon the rapid assessment tool and use it for prioritizing and planning geothermal project development in conservation forest areas. The tool is also being used to screen geothermal prospects to be included in the Geothermal Energy Upstream Development Project, an ongoing government exploration drilling project supported by the World Bank.” Muchsin C. Abdul Qadir, Energy Specialist at the World Bank explained.
Findings
The key finding is that project access roads are the major cause of social and environmental risks and impacts associated with geothermal power development in forest areas. Geothermal energy projects in Indonesia on average require longer access roads than projects in other countries with similar capacity – exhibiting nearly twice as much road construction, about 10 km of roads per 100 MW capacity versus about 5 km elsewhere – generating relatively high impacts on forests and wildlife. To get about 10 km of project access roads, 30 hectares of forest clearing is needed, while about 10 km2 of forest is indirectly impacted through the effects of road-facilitated hunting, illegal logging, use of fire, and other detrimental activities.
This is likely related to the remote forested and mountainous terrain in which many geothermal projects have been established in Indonesia and the low density of the pre-existing rural road network, thus requiring the construction of lengthy new access roads. The report also found that the wider the roads the greater the environmental impacts. Therefore, the management of road access is crucial to mitigate the risk of increased pressure on forests and forest wildlife.
The report recommends that projects which require the construction of access roads deep into forest areas should be avoided, especially if they go into core zones of conservation areas. Indonesia should develop regulations that minimize road widths and clearing around roads and include requirements for installation of faunal crossing culverts and overpasses and high-quality road base or asphalted roads with good drainage that require less forest canopy opening.
Although the risk level of geothermal power development in Indonesian forest areas varies greatly depending on a range of social and environmental factors, the report advises that ignoring these risks significantly increases the costs of geothermal power development. It recommends that government institutions, project developers, and financiers use this World Bank risk assessment in the prioritization of areas for development, focusing first on project sites with low risks and high potential capacity.
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SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 8 November 2019 – Singapore-based WEnergy Global Pte Ltd, a developer and operator of renewable power plants in Asean, said a group comprising its venture partners will fund US$20 million in equity into four new energy projects in the Philippines. These renewable energy plants will come onstream within two years.
The new projects will be designed alike the Sabang Renewable Energy Microgrid (SREC) Project in Cabayugan, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines. SREC was just commissioned.
The Sabang project was conceptualised in 2013 when the Philippine government was looking for solutions to overcome the challenge of insufficient power supply and poor power transmission. Give the vastness of the country, a fundamental problem was the lack of economies of scale in constructing power plants. WEnergy Global led the design and development of the project, and now operates the Sabang plant jointly with its Philippine partners, Gigawatt Power Inc. and Vivant Energy Corporation.
This Sabang plant, now the largest off-grid electrification plant in Asean, combines solar PV (1.4 MWp), diesel generation (1.2 MW) and 2.4 MWh battery storage to deliver electricity across a 14-km distribution network to 700 residents and commercial establishments. On average, this power plant will have 60% solar PV energy in the mix in its first few years of operation.
Mr Atem S. Ramsundersingh, CEO of WEnergy Global, said: “The fundamentals of WEnergy Global are centred on bringing sustainable renewable energy, the most cost-efficient solution, to off-grid or island communities, off-grid industrial estates and new townships … (our) answer is to build, own and operate smart micro-grids for off-grid electrification, which most multilateral agencies are starting to embrace almost 7 years after the work done by us, while investment companies and mega power companies remain averse. The commissioning of the Sabang plant today is a fruition of this goal and how it can be replicated quickly across to other parts of Southeast Asia.”
Philippine Secretary of the Department of Energy Mr Alfonso G. Cusi, who was present at the commissioning, said: “We need more decentralised energy systems through the private sector to end energy poverty and meet the President’s mandate to energize all Barangays and households by 2022. DOE encourages RE-Hybrids in rural off-grid areas and encourages companies to reduce fuel-based power and reduce subsidies for fuels. SREC is an example of that. We are changing our circulars to enable fuel-subsidy reductions.”
In January 2019, WEnergy Global entered into a partnership with ICMG Partners Pte Ltd and Greenway Grid Global (GGG) Pte Ltd, an investment entity of Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Corporation PowerGrid Inc (TEPCO-PG). The three entities set up CleanGrid Partners Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based investment entity with an initial commitment of US$60 million for project development and equity financing.
Looking ahead, WEnergy Global’s investment linked entity — CleanGrid Partners Pte Ltd — will aim to seal and sign deals with close to 15 local authorities in the Philippines to plan, build and operate microgrid projects in their respective jurisdictions.
The cooperation with TEPCO-PG and ICMG Partners will bring in seasoned expertise and excellence to solutions that can withstand natural disasters and compatible with business models that contribute to innovation of policy and regulatory frameworks. Collaboration and joint ventures with local business partners will bring in local knowledge and relations that are essential in building a network of decentralised and democratised electrification systems.
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American industrial giant General Electric (GE) will invest up to US$60 million (S$81.4 million) to develop its gas turbine repair capabilities here.
The investment will be channelled into a new repair engineering and development centre for high-efficiency, air-cooled gas turbines over the next 10 years and is expected to add 160 advanced manufacturing jobs.
GE’s existing facility employs about 250 workers, and the firm has more than 4,000 employees across its business units in Singapore.
The firm said yesterday that the new repair centre, its first outside the Americas, will begin repairing components such as nozzles and blades in the first quarter of 2021.
GE has received more than 100 orders for the gas turbines across 18 countries.
The facility here, which spans more than 398,000 sq ft, will be GE’s largest repair site globally in terms of production volume.
Mr Wouter Van Wersch, president and chief executive for GE in the Asia-Pacific, told The Straits Times at an event to mark the announcement of the new centre: “There’s a great workforce, there are very strong customers and partners here.”
He added that GE also works with local subcontractors and suppliers for materials and equipment.
While the firm is growing renewable energy projects such as those in wind turbines and solar energy, Mr Van Wersch noted that Singapore’s small size hinders expansion in this area.
But he said: “I think Singapore is going to be driven by gas power generation in the years to come.”
Mr Van Wersch said GE is committed to sustainability and using less resources across its operations worldwide, noting its renewables business will be carbon neutral by 2020.
The company has also reduced its global greenhouse gas emissions by 27 per cent since 2011 and seen a 25 per cent reduction in its global water consumption, he added.
GE’s existing facility employs about 250 workers, and the firm has over 4,000 employees across its business units in Singapore.
Mr Jim Vono, GE’s chief operations officer in the Asia-Pacific, said the new facility is expected to reduce repair times for customers in Asia by up to two months as components will not have to be shipped back and forth from the United States.
Economic Development Board chairman Beh Swan Gin said at yesterday’s event that GE’s new centre can tap the strong engineering pool in Singapore and build up a team of highly skilled repair development engineers.
He also noted the International Energy Agency projects that gas-fired power generation will overtake coal as the second-largest energy source globally by 2030, and demand for GE’s gas turbines is expected to grow. “This investment will therefore be an important long-term contributor to Singapore’s industrial output and support the Government’s commitment to maintaining manufacturing at 20 per cent of our economy.”
GE set up manufacturing operations here in 1969 and operates major businesses such as aviation, healthcare and power in Singapore.
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Growing migration to cities is part of the solution for a more sustainable future, said Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Tuesday.
Urban migration is how people vote with their feet in favour of job opportunities, education and cultural exchange, and urban planners must design cities to deliver electricity and other services efficiently, he said at the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC) Leadership Conversations forum, co-organised by the council and Eco-Business.
More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and two in three people are expected to do so by 2050, according to the United Nations.
The unit cost of supplying electricity, water, food and other modern amenities in a dense, compact and well-planned city is lower than in the countryside, said Balakrishnan, who was previously the country’s environment minister. This may be counter-intuitive to the notion of nature lovers wanting to live in the countryside and “see green”, he told an audience of about 150 industry representatives.
With buildings accounting for some 36 per cent of global energy use—such as for air-conditioning—the sector has a significant role to play in addressing the climate crisis.
“The building industry is crucial. It is crucial in a world confronting climate change, it is crucial in a world undergoing rapid and progressive urbanisation,” said Balakrishnan.
Buildings account for 39 per cent of the world’s energy-related carbon emissions, of which 28 per cent is from operational emissions while 11 per cent is from embodied emissions, which refers to the carbon dioxide emitted from the manufacture, transportation and construction of building materials.
There are differing views on what cities of the future should look like, however. Some, such as Dr Sanjay Kuttan, executive director of the Singapore Maritime Institute and former programme director at Nanyang Technological University’s Energy Research Institute, are of the view that decentralised communities with their own self-sustaining food, energy and water resources are the way to go.
Cities are on the frontline of the climate change battle, said associate professor of humanities Winston Chow of the Singapore Management University at the forum.
This is because present and future climate risks—such as heat stress, exposure to floods and droughts and extreme sea level events—are concentrated in urban areas.
Building design and construction is also critical to climate change adaptation as well as mitigation of the urban heat island effect, which causes built-up areas to be several degrees hotter than forested or rural areas. Developers could use heat-resistant construction materials, for instance.
In addition, cities can mitigate climate change impact by greater use of renewable energy and energy efficiency, said Chow, a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s sixth assessment report. Singapore is starting to see net-zero buildings, which generate as much energy as they consume.
An 80 to 90 per cent reduction of building-related carbon-dioxide emissions is needed by 2050 for the world to keep warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100, said Chow. The world is already 0.9°C warmer than pre-industrial times, he noted.
The Singapore Building and Construction Authority introduced its Green Mark Scheme in 2005 to promote more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient buildings. Forty per cent of buildings in Singapore are now Green Mark-certified, and the target is 80 per cent by 2030.
In addition, SGBC has certified about 4,000 green building products and about 800 individuals are now registered under SGBC’s Green Mark Professionals scheme, said SGBC president Ho Nyok Yong. Such individuals possess the skills to improve a building’s energy performance, for instance.
Working towards a 100 per cent green buildings target—as suggested by Eco-Business managing editor Jessica Cheam, who added that Singapore could aim to be the world’s first carbon-neutral city—is no longer a radical idea, said Balakrishnan.
The country is developing its long-term low emissions strategy and more announcements will be made in future, he said.
Singapore has pledged to reduce its emissions intensity by 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, and aims to peak its emissions at 65 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide-equivalent around 2030, Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean said this week in Parliament.
Asia has been slow in getting on board the green movement, and not enough companies are heeding the call of climate scientists, lamented Esther An, chief sustainability officer of developer City Developments Limited (CDL) at the SGBC event. Only 87 companies around the world—including CDL, one of three Singapore companies—have pledged to set climate targets across their operations and value chains that are aligned with the 1.5°C warming scenario, she said.
Singapore’s efforts so far, which include a carbon tax on its largest emitters from this year, are a good start but it can do more, said Chow.
Among the calls made by young activists, including organisers of the country’s first climate rally, are for Singapore to increase the carbon tax from S$5 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions.
The country also aims to deploy at least two gigawatt-peak of solar energy by 2030, which will meet about 4 per cent of its electricity needs, but Chow said it could look at ways to boost the figure by tapping the renewable energy capacity of its regional neighbours.
“We need to listen to youths who are demanding more action,” he said.
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Sembcorp Energy UK, part of the Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries group, a leading energy, marine and urban development group, announces that the first 60 megawatts (MW) of its battery energy storage system (BESS) fleet are now in operation.
Located in Asfordby in Leicestershire, and Ellesmere Port and Runcorn in Cheshire, the three battery storage sites recently came online following licensing approval and successful testing. These additions bring Sembcorp Energy UK’s total operational energy portfolio to 973 MW.
These sites comprise half of a 120 MW portfolio of battery storage projects—one of the largest transacted fleets of its kind in Europe. When completed in 2020, the entire fleet will further boost Sembcorp’s ability to provide the flexible distributed energy generation needed to decarbonise the UK system.
Developed in partnership with Fluence, the leading global provider of energy storage technology and services, the units are able to supply power in a matter of milliseconds. This rapid response will help National Grid keep the lights on and avoid situations such as the outage of 9 August 2019, when the UK suffered its largest blackout in more than a decade.
These battery storage installations join Sembcorp’s UK fleet of gas-fired plants, which provide flexible, efficient, rapid-response power to the UK energy market. A total of 40 sites are remotely monitored and controlled from the central operations facility in Solihull, where they can be called upon by National Grid at times of high demand.
“This is a significant milestone as we grow our business with a technology that supports a renewable future and helps deliver the UK Government’s decarbonisation plan. Our assets are positioned close to points of demand where power is most needed. Our sites will play a pivotal role in providing a more secure energy system, helping to mitigate blackout events such as were experienced by UK network operators recently,” Nomi Ahmad, Head of Sembcorp Energy UK, said.
“With this fleet of projects, Sembcorp Energy UK is setting the pace for rapid growth in utility-scale energy storage across global markets. These first three projects – and the ones still to come – will provide the deep, split-second flexibility and reliability that are critical for the UK to achieve its ambitious decarbonisation targets. We look forward to the continued growth, innovation, and benefits for the UK that our partnership with Sembcorp will produce,” Stephen Coughlin, CEO of Fluence mentioned.
Sam Wither, Head of Sembcorp Energy UK’s flexible generation business, commented: “Battery storage complements the continued growth of renewables and takes the UK a step closer to meeting its 2050 decarbonisation ambition. Our partnership with Fluence has grown from talking about energy storage to creating one of the largest distributed portfolios globally in a relatively short space of time. The energy market is ever-changing, and we have fostered a partnership with Fluence that can deliver to the fast-evolving demands of the UK.”
“The August 9 blackouts underlined the UK’s critical need for robust and flexible energy storage technology platforms. The batteries already on the system helped mitigate some of the worst impacts of the event. Our partnerships with large fleet buyers like Sembcorp similarly underscore our in-depth experience providing the system resilience the UK grid needs today and the ability it will need going forward to scale quickly to accommodate increasing levels of renewable energy,” Paul McCusker, Fluence Vice President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said.
Sembcorp Industries is a leading energy, marine and urban development group, operating across multiple markets worldwide.
As an integrated energy player, Sembcorp is poised to benefit from the global energy transition. With a strong track record in developing and developed markets, it provides solutions across the energy and utilities value chain, with a focus on the Gas & Power, Renewables & Environment, and Merchant & Retail sectors. The group has a balanced energy portfolio of over 12,400 megawatts, including thermal power plants, renewable wind and solar power assets, as well as biomass and energy-from-waste facilities. In addition, Sembcorp is a world leader in offshore and marine engineering, as well as an established brand name in urban development.
Fluence is the result of two industry powerhouses and pioneers in energy storage joining together to form a new company dedicated to innovating modern electric infrastructure. In January 2018, Siemens and AES launched Fluence, uniting the scale, experience, breadth, and financial backing of the two most experienced icons in energy storage.
The Fluence team encompasses more than 10 years of experience deploying and operating energy storage. Fluence is driving change by opening new markets to storage around the world, and has the largest deployed fleet of energy storage projects of any company.
ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) is an intergovernmental organisation within ASEAN structure that represents the 10 ASEAN Member States’ (AMS) interests in the energy sector.
