In order to support regional renewable energy (RE) target of 23% (set in the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation 2016 – 2025), the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is conducting a study to develop a RE Outlook for ASEAN – REmap Analysis.  This study applies IRENA’s REmap analytical tools, and builds on the 4^th ASEAN Energy Outlook (AEO4) that was launched in January 2016. This joint study is being supported by the Renewable Energy Support Programme for ASEAN (ASEAN-RESP), a jointly implemented project by ACE and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

On 14 March 2016 in Manila, hosted by the the Philippines’ Department of Energy (DoE), the first Working Group Meeting was organised and attended by statisticians and energy outlook experts from nine ASEAN Member States (AMS). This Meeting was arranged in parallel with the Inception Meeting of ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP) that took place on 14-16 March 2016 in the same venue.

The workshop started with presentations from IRENA about the global REmap results. The insights from country findings to be released on 16-17 March 2016 at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue were also shared. The morning session continued with a discussion of the REmap potential, with costs and benefits assessment methodology. The presentation was followed by a group discussion focusing on how to estimate the costs and benefits of RE, on definition of bioenergy traditional uses, also on the role and types of RE technologies by sector.  The group also discussed how to express the ASEAN RE target in total primary energy supply in terms of REmap’s total final energy consumption metric. The timeframe was also discussed, given the ASEAN target was set by 2025, while the year 2030 has been used in REmap analyses. The work will be continued through online discussion and the 2^nd Working Group Meeting will take place in August 2016.

The RE Outlook for ASEAN – a REmap Analysis is expected to be published during the 34^th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) in September 2016. The publication of the study is in line with the 34^th AMEM’s theme,  ‘Towards Greener Community with Cleaner Energy’.  The summary of the above-mentioned workshop also appears here. (BS)