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17 May 2019

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Thailand

Thailand and the Netherlands have signed a declaration of intent to enhance cooperation on sustainability and climate change.

According to the Embassy of the Netherlands in Thailand, 15 organisations from the two countries — including Siam Cement Group, Charoen Pokphand Group, ThaiBev, and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines — inked the deal at the Dutch-Thai Sustainability Conference yesterday.

The pact urges signatories to commit to using renewable materials in place of plastic and develop new measures to increase the sustainability of packaged products — including the removal of plastic wrappers from bottled-water tops, the introduction of more plastic-free days among retailers, and the promotion of recycling.

The Ambassador of the Netherlands for Thailand, Kees Rade, said that deeper collaboration to improve sustainability is needed because of the increasing impact of climate change across the globe.

“Average temperatures are expected to rise by 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2100,” he said.

“The four-kilometre thick ice sheets will melt much faster if current trends are allowed to continue, causing sea levels to rise by up to 60 metres — which does not only threaten human lives, but general biodiversity.”

Mr Rade said the pact will allow the two countries to share knowledge and insights to implement practices to improve sustainability.

“The Netherlands wants to become a leader in the European Union when it comes to climate change, but our usage of renewable energy sources remain low,” he said. “Thailand has seen many success in terms of sustainability, and together, we can learn a lot from each other.”

Jan Peter Balkenende, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, also urged stakeholders to incorporate sustainability into their business models for the sake of future generations.

“We should redefine our goals and agree on shared values for the benefit of our planet,” said Mr Balkenende.

“If we don’t act fast, it will cost lives. Even Shell — which is known for its petrol exploration business — has already begun to shift their attention to to renewable energy,” he said.

Meanwhile, Suriya Chindawongse, director-general of the Department of Asean Affairs, said the deal shows Thailand’s commitment to the issue of climate change.

Renewables

PGE plans to start commercial operations of 55 MW Lumut Balai geothermal plant by July 2019

17 May 2019

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Indonesia

PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) President Ali Mundakir has announced that they are planning to start commercial operations of the 55 MW Lumut Balai Unit 1 geothermal power plant on July 2019. Currently, the power plant has achieved 99% completion in commissioning and testing. The Lumut Balai geothermal project is located in Muara Enim, South Sumatra, Indonesia.

According to Ali, PGE will immediately conduct a tender for the procurement and construction of Lumut Balai Unit 2 once Unit 1 is operational. They are targeting that the tenders be completed within this year. Lumut Balai Unit 2 has been designed to also have a 55 MW capacity.

Lumut Balai Unit 1 is only one of four geothermal power plants in Indonesia scheduled to commence operations in 2019. The three other plants are in Sorik Merapi, Sokoria, and Muaralaboh.

PGE also has several other geothermal development projects in the pipeline in bid to generate an additional 1100 MW by 2026. In addition to Lumut Balai Units 2 and 3, the ongoing projects of PGE include the Tulehu geothermal project in Suli, Maluku and the Hululais plant in Lebong, Bengkulu.

Renewables

Adaro expects to install first renewable power plant in 2020

17 May 2019

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Indonesia

Indonesia’s second largest coal producer PT Adaro Energy, through its subsidiary PT Adaro Power, plans to complete its first commercial renewable energy power plant with a battery capacity of 6.5 megawatts (MW) to electrify two islands in Central Sulawesi, Paku and Umbele Morowali.

The renewable energy project is a joint venture with French electricity company Électricité de France (the EDF Group).

Adaro Power vice president Dharma Djojonegoro said on Wednesday that the joint venture with the EDF Group was a hybrid off-grid project that combined biomass, solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage that would provide a 24-hour electricity supply.

“The project is still in the feasibility study [stage] to determine whether it is sustainable in terms of operation or not. We expect the [study] to finish in the next two to three months, and hopefully we can start installing the facility next year,” he said.

Darma said once the power plant was operational, the electricity rate would be more affordable than the existing rate for electricity supplied through a diesel generator.

“We didn’t want to make a big profit from this, but it’s not a corporate social responsibility program neither. Yet, the project has to be profitable so it will be sustainable.” he said.

Research by Denmark’s environmental support program phase 3 ( ESP3 ) shows that customers on three islands of the Karimunjawa Islands archipelago, located off the northern coast of Central Java, pay Rp 2,500 (17 US cents) per kilowatt hours (kWh) for electricity produced by a diesel generator under a government subsidy program.

Electricity supplied from a diesel generator generally costs from Rp 8,970 to Rp 10,761 per kWh. (bbn)

Electricity/Power Grid

Electricity imports to drop, exports to drive growth in Laos

16 May 2019

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Lao PDR

VIENTIANE, May 16 (Xinhua) — The amount of electricity imported by Laos is likely to drop in 2019 as the country witnesses a surge in electricity generation, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Thursday.

In 2018, Laos spent 15.4 million U.S. dollars on electricity imports, less than the 18 million U.S. dollars spent in 2017, according to the Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

In 2019, Laos plans to spend about 12.1 million U.S. dollars on electricity imports, mostly from China and Vietnam.

The Lao ministry said that about 88.5 million U.S. dollars was spent on electricity imports in 2015, which plummeted to 50.6 million U.S. dollars in 2016.

However, the value of electricity exported, mainly to Thailand, soared from 600 million U.S. dollars in 2015 to 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, making it Laos’ top export earner.

The country’s target is to earn about 1,328 million U.S. dollars from electricity exports this year. Electricity is the key sector expected to drive the growth of the economy, according to the report.

Under this plan, Laos expects to export 14,800 MW of electricity annually to neighboring countries by 2025.

According to the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines, Laos has operational power plants with a total installed capacity of 7,207 MW and electricity generation of 37,366 GWh per year.

At present, 95 percent of households nationwide in Laos have permanent access to electricity, the report said.

Others

Putrajaya to study need for Climate Change Act

16 May 2019

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Malaysia

The government will embark on a scoping study to assess whether there is a need for a Climate Change Act, according to Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin.

Yeo said today that the study, which will be conducted through a collaboration between the Green Technology Corporation (GreenTech Malaysia) and the British government, is expected to be completed in 24 months.

“After we have signed this collaboration, the first thing we will do is the scoping study on whether or not there is a need (for an act), and how we do that.

“By January 2020, we will roughly have an outcome of the first phase of the study,” she told a press conference after the exchange of letters between GreenTech Malaysia and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Putrajaya today.

The ceremony was held in conjunction with British Special Representative for Climate Change Nick Bridge’s courtesy call on the minister.

Should the act come into force, Yeo said, the main impact would be on institutionalising climate change actions across the private sector.

She said the four-year collaboration programme would also benefit Malaysia in terms of addressing critical climate change initiatives, including institutional framework, as well as capacity building through skills-share and secondment of technical assistance.

“It will also allow Malaysia to study and adapt the UK 2050 Pathway Carbon Calculator to the Malaysian context,” she said.

Bridge, meanwhile, pointed out that Britain has just celebrated the 10th anniversary of its 2008 Climate Change Act.

He added that Britain had set a long-term goal of decarbonising its economy to reach what would be a global average carbon footprint for each citizen.

“We have statutory carbon budgets. So every five years, we must reduce our footprint. We are halfway to our decarbonising goal,” he said.

The collaboration programme under the UK Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions (UKPACT) Cooperation aims to strengthen, promote and develop climate change and low carbon transition collaboration between the two countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

Bioenergy

Malaysia asks for UK’s help in palm oil row with EU

16 May 2019

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Malaysia

The EU is endangering around 35,000 British jobs and £150m in exports by ploughing ahead with a ban on palm oil, Malaysia has warned.

Malaysian government minister Teresa Kok – who has been meeting British counterparts this week as part of a tour of European capitals – called on the UK to fight the EU’s “rather hostile palm oil campaigns”.

“It would be helpful for us if the UK uses its influence in Europe to help us to stop this discrimination,” she told the Telegraph, urging Theresa May’s Government to “take the lead” by becoming the first European nation to recognise Malaysia’s efforts to produce palm oil sustainably.

Others

Thai government is going DIY and building its own converted EVs, report says

16 May 2019

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Thailand

Converting older cars into electric vehicles was once one of the only ways to get an EV in your driveway, but it’s gone somewhat out of fashion as commercially available, purpose-built EVs have become common.

But the government of Thailand reportedly plans to develop its own electric vehicles. Specifically, the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) isn’t content for makers of electric cars to bring their wares to the country, so it’s going the way of Fugazi and doing it itself, according to a report Thursday by PaulTan.org.

Now, the government isn’t going to just go all willy-nilly, modifying whatever is lying around. It’s going to focus its efforts on three specific models that are commonly available used in Thailand. Those are the Toyota Vios, Honda Jazz and Nissan Almera, which we know as the Toyota Yaris sedan, Honda Fit and Nissan Versa.

EGAT is targeting a price of around 300,000 Thai baht (or approximately $9,470) to complete the conversion. This would include lithium-ion batteries, an electric motor and all the associated electronic gubbins necessary to make the thing work.

Whether these converted EVs are any good remains to be seen, and since more are becoming available through more traditional means — Hyundai sells the Ioniq and Kona Electric in Thailand now, Nissan sells the Leaf and has for a year — we’ll be curious to see if anyone actually buys one.

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Renewables

Formosa Taffeta goes green by awarding solar rooftop contract to a Vietnamese renewable developer

16 May 2019

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Vietnam

Based on Formosa Taffeta sustainable development policy and the success of solar rooftop projects being developed by Indefol, Formosa Taffeta Vietnam Company started to explore further on solar rooftop energy.

After 3 months of work, both sides sought agreement on technical and commercial terms.

This project uses the world class technologies which is calculated to set the highest record of yearly production.

This also marks the first solar rooftop at 1mwp scale of a weaving & dyeing company for textile industry in Vietnam.

Indefol – the only Vietnamese company certified by Australian solar standard (Q1’18), was chosen by Formosa Taffeta Vietnam Company, and this contract further affirms its signature of being a high-quality renewable developer.

This project also sets a first partnership between Formosa Taffeta Vietnam Company and Indefol, which might open up future possibilities on larger projects in solar energy.

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