For the 23rd time, the ASEAN Renewable Energy Sub-sector Network (RE-SSN)–a working group under ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Energy (SOME)–held its annual meeting, this time in Iloilo, the Philippines on 4-8 April 2016.  Hosted by the Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE), the annual meeting was organised in conjunction with workshops and seminars during the 5-day event known as ASEAN Renewable Energy Week or RE Week. International organisations and dialogue partners (IOs/DPs) were invited to share knowledge and experience in the workshops and seminars.

One repeated objective of the RE Week every year since 2005 is to decide RE projects winners for the ASEAN RE Awards.  This year, the Board of Judges (BoJ)–consisting of RE-SSN’s representatives from each ASEAN Member State (AMS)–and ACE received 23 applications.  After a 2-day judging session in Iloilo, 15 (fifteen) projects came out as the ASEAN RE Awards winners 2016.  Details of the projects and the winners will be announced right before the Awarding Ceremonies 2016 that will be held in conjunction with the Gala Dinner of the 34th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting and ASEAN Energy Business Forum 2016, tentatively in September 2016 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

After the BoJ finished their tasks, IOs/DPs started their sessions on knowledge sharing in different forums with different topics, for example:  permit procedure by the Renewable Energy Support Programme for ASEAN (ASEAN-RESP); and solar integration by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), the United States Department of Energy (US-DOE) and Brunei Energy Department, Prime Minister’s Office (EDPMO).  Through these forums, participants from the AMS learned new tools related to RE, and got different perspectives to proceed with RE development in their respective AMS.  During this opportunity, the ASEAN-RESP as a jointly implemented project by ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), gathered the RE-SSN’s inputs for the next ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP) to commence later this year. The RE Week was concluded with a site visit to a 54MW-wind farm in the island of Guimaras, 15 minutes by boat from Iloilo.  The San Lorenzo Wind Farm operated by Trans Asia Renewable Energy, supplies electricity to the island and exported the surplus to Iloilo City.  More stories about the ASEAN RE Week will be available in the ASEAN-RESP Newsletter June 2016.  Please check the updates on this website and the ASEAN-RESP‘s portal (title photo credit: Philippines DOE)