News Clipping Archive - Page 1028 of 1296

Others

ADB, Infrastructure Asia agree to promote green finance for sustainable infrastructure in Southeast Asia

3 October 2019

–

ASEAN

The agreement will allow ADB and Infrastructure Asia to help state-owned enterprises, regional and municipal governments, in Southeast Asia in improving their institutional, financial, and governance capacities for developing innovative and green infrastructure programs and projects

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Singapore’s Infrastructure Asia today signed a cooperation agreement to help governments in Southeast Asia adopt innovative and green finance approaches to identify and develop bankable and sustainable infrastructure projects in the region, where the annual infrastructure investment needs total $210 billion until 2030.

The agreement was signed during the Asia Infrastructure Forum in Singapore by ADB Director General for Southeast Asia Mr. Ramesh Subramaniam and Executive Director Mr. Seth Tan for Infrastructure Asia, a Singaporean agency with the mandate of supporting Asia’s economic and social growth through infrastructure development.

“Southeast Asia faces significant financing gaps in meeting its infrastructure needs, including for climate change mitigation and adaptation costs,” said Mr. Subramaniam. “We need innovative financing approaches to mitigate risks in projects and better leverage public funds to catalyze more financing from private and institutional partners, support greener and cleaner development, and help solve critical development challenges.”

“Projects structured with better financial and technical elements, along with good partnerships, are key to helping improve the bankability of Asia’s sustainable infrastructure projects,” said Mr. Tan. “Through this collaboration with ADB, Infrastructure Asia will work in close consultation with the international financing, credit enhancement, and technology ecosystem in Singapore to improve municipalities and state-owned enterprises’ access to private capital.”

Specifically, the agreement will allow ADB and Infrastructure Asia to help state-owned enterprises, as well as regional and municipal governments, in Southeast Asia improve their institutional, financial, and governance capacities for developing innovative and green infrastructure programs and projects.

To achieve this, the two institutions will launch the Innovative Finance Lab for Sustainable Infrastructure, a virtual space supported by a biannual event in Singapore, to gather stakeholders across Southeast Asia together to exchange knowledge, improve their policy-making capacities, and foster the adoption of innovative and green finance models in local infrastructure projects.

The Innovative Finance Lab will also serve as a capacity-building platform for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF), which was launched in April 2019 to boost the development of green infrastructure projects across ASEAN by catalyzing public and private capital and technologies. The ACGF is part of the Green and Inclusive Infrastructure Window, launched by Southeast Asian governments, ADB, and major development financiers under the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, a regional financing initiative established in 2011 that has committed $520 million for energy, transport, water, and urban infrastructure projects across the subregion.

ACGF aims to mobilize around $1.3 billion from a number of sources, including the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, ADB, the German development cooperation through KfW, the European Investment Bank, the Republic of Korea, and Agence Française de Développement. The facility is also supported by other entities, including the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Global Green Growth Institute, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Energy Cooperation

Russia eyeing energy cooperation with PH – envoy

3 October 2019

–

Philippines

MOSCOW, Russia — Russia has shown interest in engaging in energy cooperation with the Philippines, Manila’s top envoy here said.

In an interview with reporters on Wednesday, Philippine Ambassador to Russia Carlos Sorreta said the Philippines is “looking at” Russia to invest “in our energy sector setting up plants for natural gas” and “different steps to liquefy for our natural gas.”

“[In] conventional energy, you know Russia is a major player in oil, in gas. So there’s that…that’s what we’re looking at. But we’re looking beyond,” he said.

“We’re looking at supply also to bring down… ‘yung (to) increase sa (our energy) supplier[s]. [With very low] supplies, you can’t bring down [fuel] prices,” he added. “And we’re looking also—it’s still very early—ang (at) nuclear power na merong mga konting (and there are a few) talks [going on], trying to understand what Russia can do and what we are ready to absorb.”

Sorreta made the statement as President Rodrigo Duterte is embarking on his second visit to Russia, where he is set to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Rodrigo Duterte.

Asked if there is any possibility for Russian companies to carry out exploration in the Spratly Islands, Sorreta said: “I believe our policy is…you know that’s ours. If you want someone to have a contract with us, whether it’s Russian, it’s ours.”

“When it comes to exploring the private business, we’ll look at the bottom line of its profits. So we have to show and we have been ever since before… Kasi (Because) it’s ours eh. Parang huwag tayong mahihiya (Let’s not feel ashamed) ‘cause we’re trying to deal with our…the other contenders,” he said.

The Spratlys is a group of islands believed to hold oil and gas deposits.

The islands are claimed entirely or in part by Taiwan, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“Exploration of course at this point because we need to know what’s there before we can proceed to… And then they’re willing to do it within our laws,” Sorreta said.

“Well, they’re not a claimant. If they come in, it’s really in full recognition of our sovereign rights and our right to explore or not to explore, to explore, to not to exploit,” he added./ac

Renewables

Group seeks lawmakers’ help to keep RE perks

3 October 2019

–

Philippines

THE National Geothermal Association of the Philippines (NGAP) seeks the intervention of legislators in a bid to retain fiscal incentives for undertaking renewable energy (RE) projects amid the government’s push to rationalize perks for investors.

“We are in communication with our colleagues in the Congress… We will be visiting the Senate to make sure that the renewable energy incentives stay in place,” Joeffrey Caranto, NGAP president, said on Wednesday.

“We submitted a position paper in the Congress,” Caranto told reporters on the sidelines of the First Philippine International Geothermal Conference (PGC) held in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig on Oct. 2, 2019.

The conference seeks to expand and develop the country’s potential for geothermal energy being indigenous and sustainable resources.

The association is setting an appointment for an audience with Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian to discuss the matter, Caranto said.

NGAP, along with the Department of Energy (DoE), is advocating for the retention of RE incentives, saying fiscal perks are necessary to spur the development of nonconventional energy resources in the Philippines.

Some of the incentives under Republic Act 9513 or the “Renewable Energy Act of 2008” include a seven-year income tax holiday and tax exemptions for the carbon credits generated from RE sources; 10 percent corporate income tax; and 1.5 percent realty tax cap on original cost of equipment and facilities to produce renewables.

Currently, the Duterte administration proposes the rationalization of tax incentives. House Bill 4157 or the “Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act” (Citira), aims to reduce corporate income tax from 30 percent to 20 percent, adjust the period for the rationalization of incentives, and provide incentives for the proper behavior of firms.

“Nonconventional energy resources are closer to communities and located in lower elevation areas, so economically [speaking], mas madali siyang i-develop (such power plants are easier to develop),” Caranto said.

“If you look at conventional energy resources, they are so expensive. Permits are very difficult to obtain,” he added.

According to the NGAP official, who is also Energy Development Corp. (EDC) assistant vice president for exploration and growth, tariff is “obviously a big hurdle” to constructing RE facilities because the government has already removed feed-in tariff for geothermal as well as infrastructure expenditures. The official said, “Transmission lines, for example, are still up in the mountains.”

“For the last 15 years, wala na tayong masyadong nagiging developments with geothermal (For the last 15 years, we don’t have any developments yet in geothermal). We only have … the additional 62 megawatts in the last 15 years,” he said.

“We are in an advantageous position of possessing this valuable resource, and this conference is part of our goal to advance geothermal in our country’s energy mix as well as to make the Philippines a rightful regional and global leader in the sector,” Caranto said.

At present, according to NGAP, the country is the third largest geothermal energy producer in the world.

Renewables

PH drops in geothermal ranking

3 October 2019

–

Philippines

Indonesia eclipsed the Philippines as the world’s second largest geothermal producer behind the United States, according to the Energy Department.The Energy Department said the country should develop geothermal sources beyond the conventional to bring back the Philippines as the second largest geothermal producer.“For the Philippines to attain additional geothermal capacities, we must look into sources that are beyond conventional like medium to low-enthalpy and acidic geothermal energy source,” Energy Assistant Secretary Robert Uy said in a speech before the Philippine International Geothermal Conference organized by the National Geothermal Association of the Philippines.The Philippines, the perennial world’s second largest geothermal power producer, now slipped to the third place after Indonesia and the US.“Even with the very large potential of the country in terms of geothermal resources, there are still glaring reasons for the decline in geothermal investments: lack of potential investors who are willing to take the risk, unattractive incentives package compared to other countries, a privatized energy sector and tedious permitting processes,” Uy said.Uy said the department would study how the government sector could provide assistance to the development of such sources through fiscal and non-fiscal incentives. Geothermal leader Energy Development Corp. called for “innovation” to revitalize the geothermal industry and bring the Philippines back to the second spot.“I think the call to the industry is really to innovate, to learn how to… tackle old problems in the very new way because I think it’s very possible. When you innovate, we can actually bring down the cost overtime,” EDC president Richard Tantoco said.

NGAP president Jeff Caranto said there was no significant development in the geothermal industry over the past 15 years.“If you look at our energy mix, you cannot find other renewable that is baseload other than hydro and geo. We want to revitalize the industry. We want to put together a new history for geothermal development at least for the third wave of development in geothermal by looking into non-conventional,” he said.He said conventional energy resources, specifically high-temperature systems remained expensive and far-flung. Permits were also very difficult to obtain, he said.“If you look at non-conventional, low-temp, they’re closer to communities, lower elevation areas. Economically, they are easier to develop but capacities are relatively lower,” Caranto said.He said there was a need to impose tariffs on medium to low-enthalpy geothermal resources. “What we’re doing is we are advocating with the DOE to come up with some sort of regulations or incentives that will also help the industry. The other is implementation of other RE initiatives, especially green pricing and RPS [renewable energy portfolio standards]” Caranto said.

Bioenergy

Eppo lines up waste power

3 October 2019

–

Thailand

The government plans to issue operating licences for community waste power projects for a combined 400 megawatts of new power capacity during 2019-20.

Wattanapong Kurovat, director-general of the Energy Policy and Planning Office (Eppo), said the office is the project’s coordinator, working closely with the Interior Ministry and the private sector.

“We are conducting a feasibility study before seeking applications from private power companies,” he said.

“Licences for power from community waste will be granted for solid waste in metropolitan or high-density population areas, so industrial waste is not included.”

Mr Wattanapong said the projects fall under the latest version of the national power development plan (PDP) 2018-37, meant for power generated from renewable resources, including waste-to-energy, to account for 20% of the total capacity on the state grid.

The 400MW plan will be the second round of applications.

Eppo plans to grant operating licences during 2019-20 and each project must begin operation before 2022.

The first round started in 2015 and ended in 2018 with a combined capacity of 500MW.

Thailand generates 413MW from waste-to-energy power plants for solid and community waste.

Another 87MW is under construction with a feed-in tariff to sell electricity on the state grid at 3.21-5.6 baht per kilowatt-hour (unit) over 25 years of operation.

He said industrial waste for power generation has been granted operating licences for a combined capacity of 30.78MW at seven power plants, which are being constructed.

Mr Wattanapong said the government plans to revise the PDP to match changes in the economy and the rise of renewable energy.

The revised PDP has to emphasise renewable power generation from local resources such as agricultural waste and solid waste.

But the current version focuses on power generation from household solar panels, allocating 10,000MW.

“The solar power plan will be changed,” he said.

In related news, PTT Plc has enrolled as a liquefied natural gas (LNG) trader with the Energy Regulatory Commission to become a regional trader in line with the company’s business plan.

The current regulation on LNG trading is limited to importing and delivery by gas pipeline, but each operator cannot re-export the LNG.

PTT has tested LNG delivery by land transport for local distribution since 2018 when the gas supply from the Gulf of Thailand was interrupted.

Wuttikorn Stithit, PTT’s senior executive vice-president for gas business, said PTT is ready to provide LNG services with a trading plan for small-scale distribution through marine vessels and heavy-duty trucks.

PTT will develop a gas pipeline to feed LNG for the country’s power generation.

The company has already prepared manpower for the LNG trading plan, said Mr Wuttikorn.

Energy-Climate & Environment

At UN, Mahathir says Malaysia climbed world ladder without ravaging environment

3 October 2019

–

Malaysia

NEW YORK — Malaysia has notched major socio-economic achievements while at the same time managing and sustaining its resources, said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday (Sept 26).

“Since gaining Independence in 1957, Malaysia has successfully diversified its economy, from one that was initially commodity-based to that which is now more driven by robust manufacturing and services.

“The Malaysian economy expanded by 6.2 per cent on average every year between 1971 and 2018 while our per capita income rose by more than 20 times, to reach about US$9,300 (S$12,857) in 2018.

“Equally important, our inflation rate has been stable and kept below 4 per cent on average during the same period while enjoying full employment since 1992.

“Our absolute poverty rate fell from about 50 per cent of households in 1970 to a mere 0.4 per cent in 2016, under the old poverty line.

“We obtained these socio-economic achievements while managing and sustaining its resources,” he said at a side event of the United Nations General Assembly here entitled “Environmental Stewardship in Addressing Poverty to Achieve Sustainable Development for All”.

Dr Mahathir said Malaysia’s forest cover was currently at 55.3 per cent or 18.3 million hectares of Malaysia’s total land area, exceeding Malaysia’s initial commitment of 50 per cent at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

“This represents the nation’s will and commitment to conserve and sustainably manage our forest, its flora and fauna.

“Our forest cover today is even far higher than that of most large European countries including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said despite Malaysia’s economic growth and rapid urbanisation, maintaining its forests and making existing agricultural land more productive to meet increasing demand could not have been achieved without sustainable development policies.

“Various laws have been enacted, such as the Land Conservation Act, 1960, Wildlife Protection Act 1972, and the National Forestry Act 1984 — all instrumental legislations that have provided the legal framework covering every aspect including land use, wildlife protection, administration and conservation of forest,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said renewable energy has also been given a renewed focus in Malaysia.

“We have set a target of 20 per cent electricity generation from renewable energy sources by 2025. Current incentives, such as the Green Technology Financing Scheme and the Green Investment Tax Allowance, will be continued to incentivise the growth of renewable energy,” he added.

The prime minister admitted, however, that Malaysia still faced challenges from its growing socio-economic development needs although it has put in place various efforts to prevent environmental loss.

‘“The increasing population of Malaysia brings with it an increased demand for food, water and other infrastructures which places pressure on our natural resources and environment.

“The impact of climate change further adds to this pressure. Extreme changes in rainfall patterns as well as extended dry spells affect our forests ability to store and produce fresh water, sea level rises that lead to peculiar flood incidents and pollution.

“In the 11th Malaysia Plan (2016-2020), substantial resources have been allocated to implement a wide range of actions to address climate change as well as to further enhance our conservation and restoration efforts.

“We need to ensure the earth will be able to exist in its best form to provide the services and environment that humans need.

“Thus, we need to responsibly use and protect our natural resources and environment by conserving and do things sustainably.

“This effort needs to be adopted by all people at all levels for us to succeed, especially in addressing the impact of climate change.

“We believe that the unsustainable use of natural resources and neglecting the environment, have much to do with these changes,” he added.

Dr Mahathir said that on the global front, Malaysia took its commitment to conservation seriously and was proud to be a signatory to an extensive list of global treaties on conservation, wildlife, forestry and the environment.

“Malaysia sees these Multilateral Environmental Agreements as a key part of its formula for balance in the sense of its responsibility to the planet, its responsibility to its people to ensure their right to food, clothing and shelter, and balance in the right at its people to rise out of poverty, and to seek long-term, sustainable and shared prosperity for the country,” he added. MALAY MAIL
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/world/un-mahathir-says-malaysia-climbed-world-ladder-without-ravaging-environment

Energy Efficiency

ExxonMobil leverages new technology to improve energy efficiency

3 October 2019

–

Singapore

RECOGNISING the importance of using energy efficiently at its operations, ExxonMobil’s Singapore Chemical Plant (SCP) implemented a new technology to enhance energy performance at its aromatics facility. The success of this initiative won ExxonMobil a Best Practices honour at the EENP awards.

ExxonMobil has operated in Singapore for over 125 years and holds more than S$25 billion in fixed assets in the Republic. Its manufacturing facilities – SCP and the Singapore Refinery – make up the group’s largest integrated manufacturing complex in the world.

The SCP was first commissioned in 2001, and further expanded to more than double its capacity in 2013. Its ethylene capacity is now 1.9 million tonnes per year. Using ExxonMobil’s proprietary technologies, a broad range of feedstock can be processed at the plant before they are converted into higher-value products.

The SCP has three aromatics plants, which produce paraxylene, benzene and orthoxylene – building blocks for the manufacture of everyday consumer products such as clothing, transparent film packaging, screen protectors and synthetic leather.

In August 2017, ExxonMobil completed the acquisition of one of the world’s largest aromatics facilities on Jurong Island in Singapore; increasing its aromatics production in Singapore to over 3.5 million tonnes per year, including 1.8 million tonnes of paraxylene.

As part of its continual efforts to improve energy efficiency, ExxonMobil built a new “liquid phase xylenes isomerization” (LPI) unit that operates at low temperature, effectively reducing the energy consumed at its aromatics recovery unit, compared to the more traditional vapour phase xylenes isomerization (VPI) process.

Xylenes isomerization refers to a process that enables more paraxylene products to be produced. What’s more, LPI technology can be deployed in parallel with the existing isomerization processes at SCP, yielding debottlenecking opportunities.

“The project has led to a reduction in carbon emissions from the aromatics recovery unit as a result of less fuel gas consumed. The reduction in carbon emissions as a result is equivalent of about 4,500 cars being removed from Singapore’s roads each year,” said Raymen Chee, technical manager, ExxonMobil Singapore Chemical Plant.

“At ExxonMobil, we believe in the continuous innovation and employment of the latest technologies to improve our energy performance and reduce our carbon footprint,” he added.

Deploying LPI technology at an existing facility posed more challenges compared to implementing it in a new unit.

Among other obstacles, it meant working around existing space constraints, layouts and compatibility with existing equipment.

The team also had to undertake a thorough assessment to ensure that the new technology did not limit the unit’s overall throughput production.

GLOBAL ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The LPI project is one example of how ExxonMobil continues to leverage its Global Energy Management System (GEMS) to improve energy efficiency. The system, which won the 2017 Excellence in Energy Management award, is a result-oriented and systematic framework to identify energy performance opportunities in the groups operations, execute plans and continuously improve energy efficiency.

According to ExxonMobil, management leadership, organisational commitment and personal accountability work hand-in-hand to deliver these improvements.

ExxonMobil has been using GEMS to drive its efforts to manage energy use at its refineries and chemical plants worldwide since its launch in 2000 to identify and act on energy- saving opportunities.

A series of initiatives implemented in Singapore from 2002 to 2018 have led to gains in energy efficiency of over 25 per cent. These have resulted in the avoidance of carbondioxide emissions equivalent to taking more than 550,000 cars off off Singapore’s roads over this period.

Energy Efficiency

$5m tech centre to boost energy efficiency for SMEs to be launched by end-2019

3 October 2019

–

Singapore

SINGAPORE – A tech centre to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to become more energy efficient will be launched here by the end of this year, said Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources Albert Chua on Thursday (Oct 3).

The Energy Efficiency Technology Centre (EETC), which will cost $5 million to establish, will help SMEs to assess how energy efficient they are and how they can improve their energy performance.

Besides providing SMEs with energy performance assessments, the centre will also serve as a training ground for developing energy assessment skills.

The centre, hosted by the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), will let SIT’s engineering undergraduates, as well as industry professionals, get hands-on experience working on real-life energy efficiency projects for companies.

A new Energy Management Information Systems grant, under the National Environment Agency’s Energy Efficiency Fund, will also be launched to support companies in tracking real-time energy consumption down to the equipment level. This will enable faster and more accurate detection of energy wastage.

The launch of the new centre, coupled with the new grant to help industrial companies digitalise the way they monitor their energy performance, are the Singapore Government’s latest initiatives to meet its carbon emission targets.

Under the Paris Agreement in 2015, the Republic had pledged to reduce its emission intensity by 36 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

“By international standards, Singapore is a very small emitter, but we are committed to do our full share to fight climate change,” said Mr Chua, speaking at the opening ceremony of the National Energy Efficiency Conference 2019 at the Max Atria @ Singapore Expo.

The two-day event starting on Thursday will see more than 400 local and international energy efficiency professionals discussing energy management strategies.

Mr Chua added that Singapore’s pledge to reduce emissions intensity depends on its ability to transform to a low-carbon and energy-efficient economy.

The new tech centre, which is supported by the NEA, will be part of continued efforts to build up the energy efficiency ecosystem in Singapore, he noted.

The opening day of the conference also saw nine companies, two public sector agencies and one individual being recognised for their energy-saving efforts at the Energy Efficiency National Partnership.

The awardees included HP Singapore, ExxonMobil Singapore Chemical Plant and the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Home Team Academy.

Mr Lee Kum Chin, the regional utilities manager at healthcare company Abbott, received the award in the Outstanding Energy Manager of the Year category. He helped the company save about 30 GWh of energy last year, the equivalent amount required to power more than 5,500 households in Singapore for a year.

News Clipping

User Dashboard

Back To ACE

User Dashboard