Round-up of Asia!
Southeast Asia is an incredibly diverse but interconnected region. To achieve the right type of impact — it is imperative for sustainable technologies to be built for regional viability and to share best practices amongst each other.
Today I want to talk about a handful of countries and their own environmental progress, to help ‘set’ the scene for sustainability across Asia and for my future articles!
Let’s kick off with Singapore — probably one of the leading countries when it comes to most technological advancements. You may not have realised but it actually used to be a leading exporter of LNG (Liquid Natural Gas), however in recent years it has made considerable headway into embracing renewable sources of energy.
I found it interesting to learn that the city state worked with Nanyang Technological University on the REIDS (Renewable Energy Integration Demonstrator) initiative, to develop its first long-span wind turbine several years ago. Long term, the university plans to develop hybrid microgrids that can combine renewable energy with more conventional gas energy to deliver cleaner and more cost-effective electricity. Eventually, these microgrids will be able to integrate with solar and tidal energy.
Next on the list, we have Laos, a landlocked country and famous for having the tallest treehouse in the world. Given its affinity with nature, maybe it comes as no surprise then, that around 80% of the country’s primary energy is currently being met by renewable energy sources.
This is driven largely by the use of biomass (derived from agriculture and forestry waste) for household cooking and small-scale rural production. The country also receives 300 days of sunlight, and the government has efficiently focused on equipping rural homes with solar panels in order to provide them with off-grid electric power.
Moving on, how about Indonesia? The largest country in the region (and the world’s fourth most populated country) with a vast collection of natural resources. Its government has made robust progress towards solar power — with one of the world’s largest floating solar photovoltaic power plants currently under construction and due to complete by the end of 2022.
It features an innovative design with floating photovoltaic arrays to provide power in association with an existing hydropower plant in West Java. The country further plans to develop 60 more floating solar plants — which will go some way towards its target goal of 23% of renewables power generation by 2025.
Last but not least, I will end on the Philippines, renowned for its beaches, underground river and rice terraces. It is probably one of the countries with the largest potential for wind energy out of all the Southeast Asian nations.
However, one of the initiatives I really like is Manila’s introduction last year of the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) to promote renewable power expansion. Under the GEOP, electricity users who use above a certain amount of kW can opt to acquire purely renewable energy in their supply contracts, thus deeply opening up access to renewables to more customers.
Further market reforms are needed in the Philippines, along with the other Southeast Asian countries, however we are seeing concrete steps in the right direction to put the region firmly on a greener path! Onwards and upwards!
