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Renewables

Southeast Asia one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change: Eco-Business report

30 November 2018

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ASEAN

Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change, with coastlines and densely populated low-lying areas that are increasingly threatened by rising sea levels, according to a study by Eco-Business.

The new report on Asean’s energy landscape titled “Power Trip: Southeast Asia’s journey to a low carbon economy” found that Southeast Asian countries are beginning to transform the way energy is produced and consumed in order to transition to a low carbon, sustainable economy. This includes switching to clean energy sources, introducing policies to reduce emissions, and re-evaluating businesses and assets which may be exposed to the effects of climate change.

This comes on the back of a forecast by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that climate change could potentially shave off 11 per cent off the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the century if left unchecked.

Key findings showed that the top three sectors most in need of investment in the region were renewable energy and storage, clean energy public transport systems and energy efficient technologies and innovations.

Meanwhile, the top drivers in the transition to a low carbon economy were business leadership, local government initiatives, and consumer pressure and purchasing habits, while the top two barriers to the transition were insufficient policy or regulation and lack of access to funding.

The report also found that changes anticipated in this transition were that there would be increased environmental regulations; consumers and businesses would have more clean energy options and services; and investors and fund managers would reduce their investment exposure to high carbon assets and businesses.

Tim Hill, Research Director for Eco-Business who led the white paper, said: “Although we noted some concerns about the pace of uptake of clean energy in some of the countries, it is clear that the technologies underlying the whole transition are enabling a more resilient and less polluted world – and there are going to be a lot of business opportunities in this new era.”

This report surveyed 562 senior government, business and civic society executives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam between August and September 2018.

Oil & Gas

Government to increase utilization of natural gas for energy

30 November 2018

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Indonesia

Medan, N. Sumatra (ANTARA News) – The government will continue to increase utilization of natural gas for fuel from 19 percent of the national energy consumption at present to 24 percent in 2050.

The increase in the utilization of natural gas is in line with the Regulation of the Government No 79 of 2014 on the National Energy Policy, head of Upstream Oil and Gas Regulator (BPH Migas) M Fanshurullah Asa said here on Sunday.

In 2036, the entire production of natural gas is expected to be used domestically in 2036 at the latest, Fanshurullah said.

In 2017, around 58.59 percent of the country`s gas production was for domestic consumption with 41.41 percent exported, he said.

Meanwhile, BPH Migas is improving services and protection of consumers, he said.

Based on data from Asean Centre for Energy, natural gas portion in energy mix in ASEAN is 24 percent.

Beside as fuel, natural gas is used as feedstock in industries such as in fertilizer industry and in power plants.

Development of gas pipe of Trans-ASEAN, would increase demand for natural gas, Fanshurullah said.

Indonesia has a reserve of 142.72 trillion Standards Cubic Feet of gas a clean source of energy and environmentally friendly.

Renewables

After a Long Boom, an Uncertain Future for Big Dam Projects

30 November 2018

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Lao PDR

The rise of wind and solar power, coupled with the increasing social, environmental and financial costs of hydropower projects, could spell the end of an era of big dams. But even anti-dam activists say it’s too early to declare the demise of large-scale hydro.

The last few years have been turbulent for the global dam industry.

In July, flooding caused a dam under construction in Laos to collapse, releasing an inland tsunami that drowned hundreds of people — estimates of the number killed start at 200 and go up by multiples of that. The torrent devastated the homes and farmland of about 6,600 people, most of who now live in tents.

In April, landslides at the Ituango Dam, near completion in Colombia, clogged a tunnel used to divert river water from the project. The resulting flooding forced the evacuation of at least 25,000 people and placed the entire $5 billion project in jeopardy.

Two years ago, the United States’ tallest dam, Oroville Dam in northern California, nearly collapsed, prompting the evacuation of 190,000 people. Repairs cost $1.1 billion^⁠.

In 2016, unprecedented drought in southern Africa reduced the water level of the world’s biggest reservoir, Lake Kariba, to 12 percent of its capacity^⁠, inducing food shortages and extensive power blackouts that hamstrung the economies of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Similarly, reservoir levels at the Hoover Dam — the Colorado River dam that ushered in the modern hydropower era — have been steadily dropping as a result of a prolonged regional drought. Both predicaments have laid bare dams’ vulnerability to climate change.

Global investment in wind and solar energy now far outpaces investment in hydropower.

Major dam projects have been cancelled or suspended in Myanmar, Thailand, Chile, and Brazil. In some cases, investors have lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The World Bank, whose investment decisions influence other lenders, announced a rediscovered enthusiasm^⁠ for large dams in 2013, but since then has again reversed direction. The bank now supports “only a very few large hydropower projects at any given time,” according to Riccardo Puliti, a World Bank senior director. Chinese companies long ago overtook the bank as the world’s leading financier and builder of international dams.

Global investment in wind and solar energy now far outpaces investment in hydropower. Compared to hydropower capacity investment last year, solar was three to four times greater and wind was more than double, according to a United Nations Environment Program report^⁠. Even the China Three Gorges Dam Corporation, which built the world’s largest dam on China’s Yangtze River, now invests heavily in wind and solar energy project. Richard M. Taylor, chief executive of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) — which represents dam planners, builders, and owners in more than 100 countries — said in an interview that “the energy market has been quite challenging,”^⁠ in part because wind and solar plants offer electricity at extremely low prices. As a result, Taylor said, “The market share of hydro versus wind, bioenergy, and solar photovoltaics is diminishing.”

Thayer Scudder, an 88-year-old American anthropologist considered the world’s leading authority on dam resettlement, published a book in September tracing his career-long evolution from dam enthusiast to opponent. A frequent consultant on World Bank dam projects, Scudder concluded, “What I learned was that important short- and medium-term benefits of large dams tend to be followed by major and unacceptable longer-term economic, environmental, and social costs, including costs for more than a half-billion project-affected people living in dammed river basins.”

The environmental costs of dams have been well documented. They devastate fisheries by blocking fish migration and the downstream flow of nutrients to estuaries, and they upset river hydrological regimes that plants, animals — and humans — depend on. They are often touted as generators of clean energy, but even that assertion is being undermined by increasing evidence of substantial methane emissions from reservoirs.

All this has reduced dams’ stature by a notch, and has left some experts speculating that the industry has reached “peak dams” — the point at which the number of dams built annually levels off and begins to fall. But too many dams are still being built to justify the assertion. Dams are still going up at a rapid rate in Africa, Southeast Asia, and China. Among the projects being planned or proposed are the Congo River’s $80 billion Grand Inga Dam, which would replace Three Gorges Dam as the world’s largest, and Tanzania’s $3.6 billion Stiegler’s Gorge Dam, which would inundate a World Heritage site.

As a result, not even anti-dam activists claim that the world has reached “peak dams.” Josh Klemm, policy director at International Rivers, which offers guidance to community groups across the globe that are threatened by dam projects, said in an interview that while growth in the dam industry has been static over the last decade, in the future it could just as easily expand as contract.

Scientific journals now frequently publish articles undercutting key assumptions about dams. Probably the best-known research, a 2014 Oxford University study of 245 large dams built between 1934 and 2007, concluded that without even taking into account dams’ vast social and environmental costs, they are too expensive “to yield a positive return”— that is, the dams aren’t cost-effective. The study found that on average dams’ actual costs were 96 percent higher than their estimated costs^⁠, and the average project took 44 percent longer to build than predicted. According to data^⁠ published last year by Bent Flyvbjerg, one of the authors of the Oxford study, compared to other energy technologies, only nuclear power has a worse record for cost and schedule overruns than dams; solar and wind projects are at the top of the list.

The huge costs of dams invite corruption and often take up a significant portion of the host nations’ financial resources.

What’s so striking about all this documentation is that it has had relatively little impact on the quantity and quality of dam construction. Environmentalists argue that the studies should invalidate dams, while lenders, builders, and their politician-allies go on making money from dams. The two realms barely overlap.

Scudder’s distinction between the short- and long-term impacts of dams comprises a big part of the explanation. In calculating cost-effectiveness, scholars and environmentalists focus on dams’ performance over their operating lifetimes, which could be a century or longer, while politicians and lenders are interested in the first decade or two of a dam’s life span at most. Few politicians think beyond the expected end of their rule; they like dams because they promise electricity for industries and cities, and the sight of water spewing out of their sluice gates is a dramatic manifestation of power— dams are superb backdrops for ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Cost-effectiveness doesn’t interest dam lenders, either; what they want to know is whether their 10- or 15-year loan^⁠ will be paid off. Since the loans often commence at the beginning of construction, which could take as long as a decade, the loans may be outstanding for only the first few years of a dam’s operations, before all its negative consequences — financial, social, and environmental — surface.

“The issue isn’t cost-effectiveness,” James Dalton, global water program director for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, told me. “The issue is, ‘When do we get our money back, when do we make our killing on this?’ — and the debt is left to the state. It’s not based on the science or economics of building the dam — it’s a political choice.”

Large dam projects cost billions of dollars. The huge sums invite corruption, and often take up a significant portion of the host nations’ financial resources. The loans get paid off, and the lender— such as the World Bank— calls the project a success. But long after the dams are built, the host country may experience a debt crisis. From the 1980s on, dam cost overruns played major parts in debt crises in Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, and the former Yugoslavia^⁠.

The Oxford study cites the example of Tarbela Dam, the world’s largest earthen dam, which intersects the Indus River in Pakistan. Back in 1968, when the project was launched, the loan included a 7.5 percent contingency charge to cover inflation and possible construction setbacks. But the project wasn’t completed until 1984, eight years behind schedule, by which time inflation over the construction period reached 380 percent. The dam then cost nearly four times its initial budget, and amounted to nearly a quarter of the increase in Pakistan’s external debt over the period of construction^⁠.

Dams in the Oxford study took an average of 8.6 years to build. Their gestation period — even longer when years of planning, contract negotiations, and licensing are included — relieves politicians of accountability for them: When things go bad, the leaders who initiated the project are no longer in power, and their replacements blame problems on their predecessors.

The trouble, of course, is that, as Flyvbjerg, a professor at Oxford’s Said Business School, said in an email, “This lack of accountability generates significant risks for those who ultimately pick up the bill for projects if they go wrong, be they taxpayers or shareholders.” Those costs also include the usually grievous harm done to people displaced by dams, a number now much greater than the 40 to 80 million people conservatively estimated by the World Commission on Dams in 2000, and the damage dealt to a majority of the world’s river systems and fisheries, enough to cut into the livelihoods of another half-billion people^⁠ living downstream from dams.

The likelihood of longer droughts and more intense floods as a result of climate change undermines the case for dams.

The disparity in time frames also applies to climate change. On the face of it, the likelihood of longer droughts and more intense floods as a result of climate change seems to undermine the case for dams: They must be built larger to accommodate massive floods but smaller to justify their construction expense during droughts. Dam managers face conflicting imperatives: Reservoir water levels must be kept low so that no water needs to be released during floods, but low reservoir levels hamper electricity generation, the chief purpose of most large dams.

Dam advocates seem inclined to dismiss massive floods and droughts as infrequent occurrences that can be overcome with good engineering — even though, for example, the Amazon basin has undergone three unprecedented droughts and three extreme flooding years^⁠ since 2005. Indeed, the website of the International Hydropower Association claims that the ostensibly steady flow of electricity generated by hydropower — so-called “base load” energy — is needed to offset the intermittency of electricity from wind and solar plants.

But events like the southern Africa drought that crippled Kariba Dam have struck at the idea of hydropower’s reliability, and an alternative idea — that dams ought to be used as supplements for wind and solar plants — is spreading. One of the fastest-growing segments of the hydropower industry is pumped hydro, which involves pumping water upstream into dams when electricity rates are low, usually at night, and then releasing it in the afternoon, when rates are high— in essence, it provides backup, not base-load, power.

The IHA touts dams as a clean technology, but that’s not quite true: Many reservoirs emit substantial amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released by decomposing vegetation and other organic matter that collect in oxygen-poor reservoirs. A 2016 study in BioScience found that methane emissions from reservoirs constitute 1.3 percent all of global human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and the highest-emitting reservoirs rival coal-fired power plants^⁠. It is commonly assumed that methane emissions occur chiefly in shallow, tropical reservoirs, as if it’s a problem for only a small number of dam projects. But according to John Harrison, a professor at Washington State University’s School of the Environment and one of the study’s authors, “There is strong and growing evidence^⁠ that temperate reservoirs can produce methane at rates comparable to those reported from tropical reservoirs.”

Even so, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which sets standards for measuring nations’ greenhouse gas emissions, doesn’t include reservoir emissions in its calculations; the IPCC is considering changing that policy next year. Growing understanding of the factors causing reservoir-generated methane could at least guide decisions about siting dams, avoiding places certain to produce high emissions.

The IHA acknowledges that many reservoirs emit methane, but it puts a different spin on the phenomenon. It cites its own study^⁠ — cosponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, but not peer-reviewed — that “indicates that hydropower is one of the cleanest energy sources.” According to the study, only wind and nuclear energy emit less methane than reservoirs, and coal-fired power plants emit more than 40 times more. Therefore, the IHA concludes, countries that are reliant on coal should switch to hydropower.

But it is perhaps a measure of hydropower’s more modest standing in the world that the industry no longer presents itself strictly as the producer of stand-alone monuments of perpetual electricity generation, the way people once thought of Hoover Dam. Instead, the industry increasingly is offering to produce “smart dams” that complement other renewable electricity sources. The combination could, for example, address seasonal variations in precipitation by relying on solar power during the dry season and hydropower during the rainy season, when clouds impede solar power. Some reservoirs, most notably in China, now feature floating solar panels that simultaneously avoid occupying valuable land, reduce reservoir evaporation, and take advantage of existing power lines that distribute electricity from the dams.

“The existing hydropower fleet represents a tremendous opportunity to enable other renewable technologies” — wind, solar, and biomass — “to prosper,” Taylor, IHA’s executive director, said. “I think that’s starting to be understood.”

Renewables

4000 villages now have access to solar grids

30 November 2018

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Myanmar

The government said its solar electrification project has allowed almost 200,000 households to access power supply over the last two years.

Over 4000 villages and 180,000 households have been electrified during two years of five-year solar electrification project implemented by the agriculture ministry’s Department of Rural Development (DRD), U Sai Thura Kyaw, director of that department, told The Myanmar Times.

The government said its solar electrification project has allowed almost 200,000 households to access power supply over the last two years.

NEP has two components, with DRD carrying out one part and another one led by the Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE). Both projects are funded by the World Bank, amounting to US$400 million. MOEE received US$310 million while DRD secured the remaining $90 million.

In the fiscal year 2016-17, a total of 2708 villages (around 90,000 households) gained access to solar-powered mini-grids. The following year targeted 1366 villages, the director explained. With three years to go under the plan, Italy has provided an interest-free loan of €30 million for electrifying Chin State.

The department is carrying out to supply electricity to Southern Shan State with the help of KfW, German government-owned development bank. It expects to supply electricity to the entire country by 2030 with the government’s budget, foreign loans and other assistance, U Sai Thura Kyaw added.

Renewables

New rule says on-the-grid solar panel owners must get permission from PLN

30 November 2018

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Indonesia

The government finally issued last week a long-awaited ministerial regulation on photovoltaic solar panels, which sets out guidance and requirements for people who want to install them on their house or facility.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministerial Regulation No. 49/2018 on the use of solar panels on houses or in industry stipulates that the government intends the policy to help them reach the national target of renewable energy making up 23 percent of the national energy mix by 2025.

The new rule, obtained by The Jakarta Post on Sunday, stipulates several key points, including the requirement for those who wish to install solar panels to submit documents, comprising their customer ID number, a proposal to switch from a pre-paid to a post-paid scheme and the specifications of the solar panels that will be installed.

“PLN will evaluate and verify the proposal and later give approval within a maximum period of 15 days from when the proposal is submitted,” the regulation stated.

The owners also have to pay an additional fee, unless they install the panels on a house.

In short, solar panel owners who wish to “sell” electricity to PLN must get approval from the state utility on administration and technicality issues.

And then they must obtain a certificate indicating that the installation is good to operate (SLO), which will be issued by a state electricity inspection institution (LIT).

Those who are off the grid are exempt from having to get permission and pay an additional fee, but they must report to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s Renewable Energy Directorate regarding the electricity capacity of the panels, the regulation went on.

The rules also say that the solar panels cannot exceed the existing electricity capacity of the building.

Under the regulation, PLN only counts 65 percent of the electricity produced by a solar panel. For example, if one panel produces 100 kWh from their solar panel, PLN only counts 65 kWh.

The rule says the export electricity will be calculated every three months, with the export amount starting from zero again the following quarter.

The new regulation took effect on Nov. 16. (evi)

Others

Diesel-electric hybrid buses to hit the road in December 2018

30 November 2018

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Singapore

SINGAPORE – The first 10 diesel-electric hybrid buses in a fleet of 50 will be on the road from next month (Dec 2018), as part of the national effort to make the public bus fleet here more environmentally friendly.

They will be run by operators SBS Transit and SMRT, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) when announcing the move on Monday (Nov 26). Among the first routes to get the buses is service 272 , a feeder service operated by SBS Transit in the Bukit Merah area.

In a hybrid, when brakes are applied, the electric motor acts as a generator to recover kinetic energy, which is stored in the batteries as electricity.

The buses will run on electricity at speeds of up to 17 kmh, switching to the diesel engine only at higher speeds.

They are from Volvo East Asia, which won a $30 million contract to supply the vehicles in October last year (2017).

Two trials of a Volvo hybrid bus, conducted in Singapore in 2015 and 2016, reported fuel savings of up to 40 per cent as well as “significant reductions” in emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

On top of these hybrids, Singapore will start introducing electric buses on the roads from next year.

The hybrid buses are fitted with several features to benefit both commuters and drivers.

These include advanced driver-assistance systems to warn drivers of obstacles, while a camera trained on the driver’s eyes will sense if he or she is dozing off and trigger a device to jolt the seat.

For commuters, an enhanced information display system – comprising two LCD screens and two LED screens – will provide more information about their routes.

The LED screens, sited at the front and back of the bus, show the next stop as well as the bus service number and final destination.

As for the LCD screens, one facing out of the bus will show the next three MRT stations along its route, as well as which lines the stations are on. The other in the bus displays the next four stops, in addition to nearby MRT stations and their lines.

This enhanced information display system will also make audio announcements of the next bus stop.

All new buses will be fitted with this enhanced display systems to help commuters plan their journeys, said the LTA.

“All these will help make the commuter experience more pleasant and encourage more people to take public transport,”said Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng, who rode on one of the new hybrids on Monday (Nov 26).

The buses will be progressively deployed on different services, with details to be announced at a later date, said the LTA.

“This progressive deployment will help us better understand the operational challenges that come with the wider deployment of such buses under our tropical climate and traffic conditions,” it said.

Also, it will give bus technicians and engineers more time to understand the challenges of maintaining such buses, the LTA added.

Renewables

New govt policies to boost affordable solar energy: Minister

30 November 2018

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Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The government intends to provide sustainable, reliable and affordable solar energy for Malaysians through new policies beginning Jan 1, 2019, such as the New Net Energy Metering (NEM) Scheme and Supply Agreement for Renewable Energy (SARE), says Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin.

“I hope our solar players will not only share the solar solutions pie in Malaysia but become market leaders by providing solar solutions to other countries in Asean,” Yeo said at a recent dialogue session with solar photovoltaic industry players organised by Seda Malaysia, the Energy Commission and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB).

In a statement today, the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) Malaysia said the new policies were introduced to create a fertile ground to grow the solar industry by opening the market and subsequently push the local players to become regional solutions providers.

The NEM scheme will upgrade from the net billing concept to the pure net energy metering scheme that will be applicable only to Peninsular Malaysia for registered TNB customers.

“Under the existing net billing (scheme), excess electricity is sold to TNB at displaced cost of 31 sen per kWh, but under the new scheme, monthly electricity bill will be consumption (from TNB) minus generation (from solar) multiply with the retail electricity tariff.

“This will result in additional electricity savings per month and will help the return of investment in PV systems,” Seda said.

The development authority added that other changes in the new NEM and SARE included purchase mode, and new policy and requirements for foreign investors.

Energy Cooperation ,
Renewables

Nuclear Cooperation between Australia and Viet Nam strengthened with the support of the IAEA

30 November 2018

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Vietnam

With the support and input of the IAEA, the Viet Nam Atomic Energy Agency (VAEA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on October 10, with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to establish and enhance a new, cooperative for the peaceful application of nuclear science and technology.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed during a visit by a Vietnamese delegation to ANSTO headquarters in Sydney, Australia. This cooperation has been supported by an ongoing national TC project[1], which aims to assist Viet Nam as it develops new nuclear infrastructure and expands its engagement with nuclear science and technology for development.

Signed by the CEO of ANSTO, Dr Adi Paterson, and by the Director General of VAEA, Dr Hoang Anh Tuan, the bilateral agreement establishes a strong basis for future activities in the areas of research reactor operation and utilisation, environmental monitoring of mining tails, and food provenance.

“ANSTO has worked with a variety of Vietnamese agencies for many years through multilateral fora such as the IAEA, the Regional Cooperative Agreement, and the Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia,” explained Dr Adi Paterson. “This MoU will give us an opportunity to cooperate with Viet Nam more closely on areas of mutual benefit,” Dr Paterson continued.

In the addition to signing the MoU, this visit from VAEA delegates to Australia was the occasion for experts from the Tran Hung Dao Hospital and the Viet Nam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety (VARANS) to engage in an intensive, week-long programme, financed and organized through the TC programme, to learn about the work of Australian institutes dealing with nuclear science and technology.

The delegation’s itinerary included a visit to the Australian Synchrotron to see the cutting-edge work conducted by ANTSO in the field of nuclear research. At the Victoria Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC), the delegation observed nuclear medicine professionals at work, and at the laboratories of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) the delegation members gained a better understanding of how the country conducts its regulatory standard-setting, dosimetry verification, and its environmental monitoring.

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