Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 44

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ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Progress in energy efficiency slows down
Energy efficiency has tremendous potential
to boost economic growth and avoid greenhouse gas emissions, but the global rate of progress is slowing – a trend that has major implications for consumers, businesses and the environment, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency.
Global primary energy intensity – an important indicator of how heavily the world’s economic activity uses energy – improved by just 1.2% in 2018, the slowest rate since the start of this decade, according to the IEA’s Energy Efficiency 2019 report.
The rate of improvement has now declined for three years in a row, leaving it well below the 3% minimum that IEA analysis shows
is central to achieving global climate and energy goals. If the rate had reached 3% over that period, the world could have generated
a further $2.6 trillion of economic output – close to the size of the entire French economy – for the same amount of energy.
“The historic slowdown in energy efficiency in 2018 – the lowest rate of improvement since the start of the decade
– calls for bold action by policy makers and investors,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director.
“We can improve energy efficiency by 3% per year simply through the use of existing technologies and cost-effective investments. There is no excuse for inaction: ambitious policies need to be put in place to spur
investmentandputthenecessarytechnologies to work on a global scale.”
The need for stronger action underpins the work of the Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency, which the IEA announced in July.
Headed by Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the commission’s members include national leaders, government ministers
and top business executives. It will produce recommendations next summer on how
to achieve major breakthroughs in energy efficiency policy.
The slowdown in energy efficiency is also the key reason the IEA has been the driving force behind the Three Percent Club, an initiative under which 15 countries have already signalled their commitment to help the world get on a path of 3% annual improvements in energy intensity.
G R I D
SP Group eyes more links
with region to tap clean
power
Singapore’s state-owned power grid operator wants to build more connections to neighbouring countries to tap their greater potential for renewable energy, Bloomberg reported.
Countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia have ample spare land for solar panels and enough wind to power turbines, both things
thatSingaporeislacking,SPGroupchief executive Wong Kim Yin said in an interview recently.
Building transmission lines to connect the countries and using renewable energy credits to facilitate power trading can allow the island nation to use clean power even if it cannot produce it.
“One of the possible ways of tapping renewable resources is actually working with our neighbours,” Mr Wong said on Bloomberg Te-levision. “Some physical regional interconnects will help Singapore in that department.”
Singapore faces two challenges in getting more green power.
The first is that producing clean energy for its densely populated urban areas requires a large amount of open land, a problem shared by grids globally as they seek more carbon- free electricity.
The second, which is unique to its city- state status, is that its borders are national boundaries.
The idea of connecting power plants and customers across South-east Asia has been pursued for more than 20 years, but stymied by issues including lack of government coordination and infrastructure funding. However, that could be changing.
Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing has included regional power grids as one of four measures that Singapore will explore to help decarbonise its power sector, which is almost entirely reliant on imported natural gas.
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Week 44 05•November•2019