ASEAN Clean Energy Corridor (ASEAN CEC) Consultation Meeting and IRENA Regional Workshop: Overcoming Critical Bottlenecks to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment in ASEAN+6 (ASEAN + Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand) were conducted on 13 June 2016 and 14 -15 June 2016 respectively, in Bangkok, Thailand. ASEAN CEC was co-organised by ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), hosted by Ministry of Science and Technology of Thailand. IRENA Regional Workshop for ASEAN+6 was organised by IRENA, Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT) and hosted by TISTR. The guests/participants for both workshops are policy makers, researchers, energy experts, academics, renewable energy (RE) entrepreneurs and ministerial staff from ASEAN Member States (AMS). The presenters in IRENA Regional Workshop were from AMS representatives, Thai Biodiesel Producer Association, Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) South Asia, Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute or AIST (FREA), Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Asian Institute of Technology Thailand, New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO). For these workshops, ACE sent two representatives, Ms. Badariah Yosiyana and Mr. Aloysius Damar Pranadi.

Credit : ACE

ASEAN CEC was IRENA’s initial platform to review and provide consultations for RE development in ASEAN. The consultations include policies, barriers, opportunities, marketplaces, potential database and investments. ACE reviewed the current RE development in AMS. As the results, ASEAN CEC initiated 5 (five) pillars (Resource Assessment and Zoning, Planning, Enabling Framework, Capacity Building, and Political Commitment) that will be one of the platforms for AMS in sharing updates and current status of their RE development. The first and fifth pillar are the focus points from IRENA to help some ASEAN Member States (AMS) that are still struggling in terms of RE policy, and to enable them in assessing the existing RE resources.

Meanwhile, IRENA Regional Workshop aims to facilitate discussions among ASEAN+6 on RE technologies (especially biomass conversion technology, which has enormous potential in ASEAN+6 region). In this regional workshop, ACE was sharing ideas and suggestions on ‘Plan of Renewable Energy Marketplace Tool for ASEAN’, developed by IRENA. IRENA is eager to engage ACE, as regional energy centre in ASEAN, to conduct more RE studies in ASEAN, especially on investment and deployment. The Regional Workshop also discussed about biomass conversion technology which is applied differently in different Member States. Based on ASEAN Renewable Energy Development 2006-2014 published by ACE, Indonesia is the leader in biomass with 32.6 GW potentials, followed by Thailand, Lao PDR and Malaysia with 2.5 GW, 1.2 GW and 0.6 GW potentials respectively.