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Renewables

Solar Philippines opens 150-MW plant in Tarlac

28 April 2019

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Philippines

Renewable energy developer Solar Philippines said over the weekend its 150-megawatt Tarlac solar power project started supplying the Luzon grid. Solar Philippines president Leandro Leviste said in a statement over the weekend the Tarlac solar farm at full capacity of 150 MW could help address the Luzon grid’s power shortage, which in recent days ranged from 100 to 200 MW. Leviste said the additional supply meant averting rotating blackouts for up to 500,000 households, bigger than the entire residential demand of Tarlac. “We are inspired to think that our actions are making a tangible difference for the Philippines, and will intensify our efforts to bring low-cost solar energy to every Filipino,” said Leviste. Unscheduled and forced shutdowns of power plants have resulted in rotating blackouts and red and yellow alerts this month. These plant outages are also expected to push up electricity rates. Solar Philippines’ Tarlac solar project is currently the largest generation facility of its kind in the country.

The project has an approved power supply agreement with Manila Electric Co. at P2.9999 per kilowatt-hour, making it the lowest cost plant in the Philippines and the lowest in Southeast Asia. Leviste said the entry of lower priced solar was timely and appropriate. Wholesale Electricity Spot Market prices typically go up and exceed P7 per kWh during the dry months. WESM is the country’s trading floor of electricity, where prices go up when demand is high and the supply is tight. To keep costs low, the Tarlac project uses panels manufactured at Solar Philippines’ Batangas facility, the first Filipino factory. Leviste earlier said the solar project would be “the first in the Philippines at a lower cost than coal, the first with battery storage for 24-hour power, and the first to demonstrate that renewable energy as mid-merit and even base load.”

Renewables

Two geothermal service contracts of Basic Energy terminated in the Philippines

28 April 2019

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Philippines

In a public disclosure, Philippines-based Basic Energy Corp. reports that the country’s Department of Energy has cancelled its geothermal service contract for the East Mankayan geothermal projects, covering certain areas in the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province in Luzon.

The Geothermal Service Contract (GSC) 2013-02-041 was awarded on Feb. 5, 2013, had a five-year pre-development phase.

During that period, the company said it conducted the necessary geological and geophysical studies to determine the potential of the geothermal resource and information and education campaign in the affected areas.

The company though ran into challenges due to local opposition from indigenous people and requested a suspension of obligations until those issues were solved in January 2018. The DOE acted on the request, terminating the service contract retroactive on February 8, 2018.

Meanwhile, the DoE denied the company’s request for a moratorium for GSC 2013-11-048, which covers the West Bulusan Geothermal Project, for which the contract was also terminated in October 19, 2018.

Basic Energy reports though, having “filed a motion for reconsideration of the said termination, which is now pending resolution of [the] DoE,”

The firm has other geothermal contracts in various parts of the country in Mariveles town, Bataan province; Iriga town, Camarines Sur and Albay provinces; and West Bulusan town, Sorsogon province.

Renewables

Ayala eyes more renewable projects in Vietnam

28 April 2019

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Vietnam

Ninh Thuan, Vietnam—AC Energy Inc., a unit of conglomerate Ayala Corp., plans to build more renewable projects here after recently completing a 330-megawatt solar farm, one of the biggest in Southeast Asia, in partnership with the BIM Group. The solar farm, comprising of three facilities with installed capacities of 30 MW, 250 MW and 50 MW, respectively, is the first project under BIM/AC Renewables, the renewable energy development platform of AC Energy and the BIM Group. “Vietnam is one of the Ayala group’s focus in renewable energy investments… We are very excited about Vietnam. We have already invested in the water sector here. This is a very large and meaningful investment for us and we want to continue more investments with the BIM Group particularly in the energy group,” said Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala. The BIM/AC Renewables solar farm, which sits on over 300 hectares of land, is one of the largest in Southeast Asia. It is equipped with the latest technology to ensure efficient operations. It is expected to generate 545 million kWh of renewable energy annually and generate income and jobs for the province of Ninh Thuan.

“I want to mention the importance of local partnerships and how happy we have been, also with BIM Group. There is no way, I think, that a foreign group can come to an area like this and tackle the kind of challenges that you have without a local partner,” said Ayala. The inauguration and ceremonial switch-on held on April 27 was led by Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, Ninth Thuan Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Duc Thanh, Ninh Thuan Chairman of People’s Committee, Luu Xuan Vinh, Ayala and BIM Group chairman Doan Quoc Viet. “We needed a partner who had a problem-solving mindset… who tried to find solutions in mind and AC was that, we couldn’t find a better partner… We’ve been very happy with them,” said BIM Group deputy chairman Doan Quoc Huy. Construction of the $294-million solar project, which started in January last year, took 14 months and employed approximately 2,000 workers throughout the construction phase. Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. was the sole lender, providing non-recourse project financing of $232 million.

Electricity/Power Grid

No brownouts on election day, energy officials

27 April 2019

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Philippines

There will be no power interruptions on Election Day, but there is no assurance of sufficient supply after May 13, Energy officials told lawmakers Friday amid reports of low electricity supply in the country. Meanwhile, more than 4,700 people have been arrested since the start of the Commission on Elections’ gun ban on Jan. 13, the Philippine National Police said Friday. PNP spokesman Bernard Banac said as of 6 a.m. Friday a total of 4,729 people had been arrested in 576,983 police operations since the gun ban’s implementation. Of that number, 2,634 were intercepted during police patrol responses, 977 through search warrants and 723 during the “Oplan Bakal, Sita, Galugad” operations. Banac said the total included 331 people arrested in checkpoints and 64 others during the serving of warrants of arrest. Tte Commission on Elections said Friday it will use 85,000 Vote Counting Machines for the May 13 elections, which would be fewer than the 92,000 VCMs used in the 2016 elections. Comelec Director Teopisto Elnas Jr., deputy project director of the poll body’s Project Management Office for the May 13 polls, said the number of VCMs for the 2019 midterm elections would be fewer because the number of registered voters in a clustered precinct had been increased from 800 voters to 1,000 per clustered precinct. “We decided to purchase the VCMs for the May 2019 polls, and the number of registered voters also increased. It is impossible that the number of voters per precinct will be the same. It cannot accommodate with the same allocation,” Elnas said. He also assured the public that special voting centers would also be available for the indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and senior citizens for the May midterm polls. “We will have separate and accessible voting centers for IP voters. We will have 33 accessible voting centers spread out in Bulacan, Aurora, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, and South Cotabato,” Elnas said. Each voting center would have one polling place for PWDs and senior citizens, meaning each school or particular facility used for the conduct of polls across the country will have one station for PWDs and senior citizens, he added.

Officials expect low power consumption on Election Day, which falls on a Monday since it was declared a special non-working holiday. “We expect sufficient supply. The worry we’re having is the counting day, transmission day,” Energy Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola told members of the Senate Committee on Energy. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said Tuesday parts of Luzon would experience rolling blackouts due to low power reserves. The peak demand in the Philippines’ largest island is expected at 10,536 MW, and the available capacity is at 10,576 MW, the company said. Meralco, the largest power distributor, earlier said it was preparing contingency measures in case several poll precincts would be hit by rolling blackouts on May 13. With Vito Barcelo

Renewables

Major solar power complex and renewable energy project inaugurated in Ninh Thuan

27 April 2019

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Vietnam

The BIM Group started construction on the project in June 2018 and signed a power purchase agreement from the complex with Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) at the end of the year.

The complex features three plants, with respective capacities of 30MWp, 250MWp and 50MWp, and will be connected to national electric network this month.

Under the VND 7 trillion (US$301.3 million) project, more than 1 million solar panels were installed at the plants, together with other advanced technologies, expecting to contribute 600 million kWh to the national grid and benefit 200,000 households yearly.

Also, this morning, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam attended the inauguration ceremony for the first phase of the country’s largest renewable energy project in Bac Phong commune, Thuan Thanh district.

Invested in by Trung Nam Group, the VND10 trillion (US$430.5) project includes solar and wind power plants with total design capacity of nearly 410 MW.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremonies, Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam applauded the efforts made by BIM Group and Trung Nam Group to compete the project on time, as scheduled in their commitments to the Ninh Thuan provincial authorities.

He called on the investors to work out more renewable energy projects in Ninh Thuan in order to turn the locality into a renewable energy centre of Vietnam.

Renewables

Indonesia’s dull solar sector

27 April 2019

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Indonesia

ndonesia is the largest energy consumer among all ASEAN member states, and with over 260 million people, energy demand in the archipelagic country is growing rapidly and is expected to rise by nearly four gigawatts (GW) to 66.6 GW this year. Although dependence on fossil fuels has increased in recent years, Indonesia has started adding more renewable energy to its energy mix.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)’s 2017 report titled ‘Renewable Energy Prospects: Indonesia’, the country aims to convert 23 percent of its total energy supply to renewables by 2025, and 31 percent by 2050 as part of its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

The conversion of solar energy into electricity is done either directly using photovoltaic (PV) technology or indirectly using thermal technology as well as concentrated solar power (CSP). CSP involves using mirrors or lenses to concentrate solar energy and convert it into heat. The heat is then used to create steam, which drives a turbine to generate electricity.

Huge potential

Solar energy in Indonesia has enormous potential. IRENA’s Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future (REmap) programme released in 2016 identified a potential for 47 GW of installed capacity by 2030, which includes plans to use solar energy to provide electricity to nearly 1.1 million households in remote areas that do not have electricity.

According to IRENA, solar energy is expected to be used on a significant scale by 2030 in three ways: in utility-scale plants, on residential and commercial rooftops, and in off-grid settings to replace costly diesel-powered generation. It is assumed that this potential will be developed by 2030 through efforts by the government and state power company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

Source: Lantau Group – Southeast Asian Solar: Market Outlook and Policy Overview (2017)

However, solar energy development in Indonesia is still sluggish and a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) in February found that Indonesia’s policies are getting in the way of a wider introduction of solar energy.

Titled ‘Indonesia’s Solar Policies: Designed to Fail?,’ the report stated that the country has lagged behind others in the region and calls for new regulations to spur investment. “In spite of abundant solar resources, the government continues to institute policies that serve as barriers to scaling up commercial and residential adoption of solar,” said Elrika Hamdi, IEEFA energy finance analyst and author of the report.

The IEEFA report underlines that only 24 MW of solar, including solar rooftop units, are currently installed and dispatchable to the grid in Indonesia. Not only is PLN “plagued by an inflexible and high-cost coal program that is burdening the system with grid development challenges,” investors find it difficult to see the financial benefits of installing rooftop solar systems due to regulations.

Poor policies

Apart from the Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) policy that discourages long-term solar investments and creates bankability challenges for some developers, some of the other policy-related barriers for on-grid solar include requiring solar producers to use “local content,” especially solar panels that are significantly more expensive and of lesser quality than imports. Another policy which should be revisited is forcing solar producers to match the price of baseload coal-powered units that are heavily subsidised by the state.

While financing rarely represents a critical factor in the relatively low number of solar projects in Indonesia, IEEFA found that the lack of scalable projects of sufficient size and quality to meet bankability standards was a bigger headache.

Clustering several smaller projects into one large renewable energy investment deal that appeals to financial institutions would help address this problem, as will more investment in education to train the next generation of engineers and technicians who can manage and maintain the transition to a more sustainable energy sector.

“The opportunity is there, but political will and leadership will need to be mobilised in order to address the challenges. If not, Indonesians will face significant economic, environmental and social costs unless a new consensus can be reached about the future of the country’s power sector,” the report concluded.

Others

Malaysia can help reduce aviation industry carbon footprint with palm oil biofuel, says Teresa Kok

27 April 2019

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Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok said the ministry is planning to produce biofuel using palm oil for the aviation industry, in a bid to boost palm oil sales and to reduce carbon emissions.

In a special media interview on Thursday, Kok said the move fulfils Malaysia’s commitment as a member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), to adopt and employ the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia) to reduce carbon footprint.

She explained that under Corsia, airlines that emit carbon dioxide exceeding 10,000 tonnes yearly must report their carbon emission data for monitoring from January 2019 and this would become mandatory for all international airlines beginning 2027.

“This is an innovative approach and it’s consumer friendly.

“The usage of palm oil biofuel has been accepted by Corsia as one of the initiatives to reduce carbon emission,” Kok said during an interview to commemorate Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) first year as the federal government.

Addressing environmental concerns from the European Union (EU), Kok said that the government has also taken the lead in revamping the image of the palm oil sector here, which is often blamed for displacing wildlife and deforestation.

“We admit that there were perhaps some issues which were not right, which perhaps happened in the past, but now, we will continue efforts to ensure that the palm oil industry grows sustainably, and this is important to deflect the accusations made towards the industry,” she said.

Kok said her ministry had launched a special programme to plant one million trees in degraded areas in Sabah last month, which also included several nature conservation efforts.

One of the initiatives is to build a special wildlife corridor.

“To create a wildlife corridor for the Orangutans and elephants in Sungai Kinabatangan, and this would involve several companies which own palm oil plantations in areas in the vicinity.

“We will also document the activities under this project, to show the world, especially Europe, that Malaysia is practicing sustainable palm oil planting, by protecting forests and wild lives, as well as taking responsibility to rehabilitate degraded forests in nearby areas,” Kok added.

She said that the effort is also a corporate social responsibility for palm oil companies, and Malaysia in general to maintain Malaysia’s forested areas at 50 per cent.

Renewables

Thailand plans to build world’s biggest network of floating solar farms

26 April 2019

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Thailand

Using the heat of the sun to produce electricity sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but in fact, research into solar technology began well over 100 years ago.

But what is relatively new is the idea of floating solar panels on water including lakes, reservoirs and even the sea!

It has two major benefits. First, solar panels cover vast areas of land so putting them on water saves valuable space needed for industry, agriculture or housing.

Second, the cooling effect of the water makes floating solar panels up to 16 percent more efficient and longer lasting.

Putting solar panels on water saves valuable land and is said to make them more efficient. /CGTN Photo

These two factors convinced Thailand’s state utility, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, to draw up ambitious plans to construct 16 floating solar farms at nine hydropower reservoirs across the country – making a major contribution to future power needs.

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with a private Thai company, SCG Chemicals, to undertake research and development into the idea at its factory at Rayong, 170 kilometers from the capital Bangkok.

Research is being conducted by the Thai firm, SCG Chemicals. /CGTN Photo

“In Thailand, we are blessed with very fertile land for agriculture so for us it doesn’t make sense to use that land for a solar farm – and at the same time by having an agriculture industry we have a lot of water – reservoirs and small ponds – so for those kinds of surface water it would be a benefit to put a floating solar farm on top of it,” said Suracha Udomsak, SCG Chemicals’ Chief Technology Officer for Innovation, Technology and Emerging Business.

“We also have a strong commitment to the CO2 issue and developing more renewable energy is government policy.”

SCG Chief Technology Officer Suracha Udomsak. /CGTN Photo

The design team says constructing solar farms at existing hydro schemes will double electricity production from six to 12 hours a day; when conditions limit solar generation, hydropower can take over.

Thailand currently produces around 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources. But it plans to increase that to 37 percent, more than a third of its total capacity, within 20 years with floating solar making a substantial contribution.

Phase one will see Thailand building a 63-million-U.S.-dollar solar farm at the Sirindhorn Dam in the eastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, the full network is scheduled to be constructed over the next two decades.

The first floating solar farm is planned for the Sirindhorn Dam at Ubon Ratchathani in east Thailand. /CGTN Photo

Eight of the planned solar farms will each be bigger than the world’s current largest, at a collapsed coal mine in China.

Commenting on the scale of the project, Udomsak added: “I think it’s a bold move but it very much makes sense for a country like Thailand to embark on this journey.”

Some have raised concerns that solar panels could block sunlight and affect marine life but those backing the project say the technology is proven and panels cover too small a surface area to create problems.

Meanwhile, the island state of Singapore – where land is extremely limited – is developing a floating solar system in the sea off its coast.

Elsewhere in Asia: China, India, Japan and South Korea are among those enthusiastically pursuing floating solar technology.

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