Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 36

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
NUCLEAR
TEPCO faces dumping
radioactive Fukushima
water into Pacific
Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) will have to dump radioactive water from its destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean as it runs out of room to store it, the environment minister said.
TEPCO has collected more than 1 million tons of contaminated water from the cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” the minister, Yoshiaki Harada, told a news briefing in Tokyo. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.”
The government is awaiting a report from an expert panel before making a final decision on how to dispose of the radioactive water.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in a separate press briefing, described Harada’s comments as “his personal opinion”.
TEPCO was not in a position to decide what to do but would follow the policy once the government made a decision, a spokesman for the utility said.
RENEWABLES
China’s data centres to keep emission high
China’s data centres are on track to guzzle more electricity by 2023 than all of Australia last year, said a Greenpeace report published yesterday, AFP reported
While China leads the world in renewable energy capacity, data centres in the country remain dependent on coal.
Nearly three-quarters of the electricity used by data centres last year was sourced from coal, according to research by Greenpeace East Asia and the North China Electric Power University — emitting 99 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
By 2023, that number could jump to 163 million tonnes.
The appetite for data storage and transmission in China has skyrocketed in recent years, with 800 million online users and a booming tech industry churning out photographs, videos, and online transactions.
“While China’s data centre industry has
made significant improvements in terms
of energy efficiency, the industry’s massive carbon footprint is proof that much more action is needed,” said Ye Ruiqi, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia, adding that the centres are not aware of their “responsibility to respond to climate change.”
According to the Greenpeace report, electricity consumption from China’s data centre industry is projected to increase by
66 percent over the next five years and by 2023, the industry will exceed Australia’s total electricity consumption last year.
Cambodia posts new solar tender low
Cambodia’s first solar auction has set an electricity price the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says is a record low for Southeast Asia of $0.03877 per kWh.
The 60MW tender was opened in February to secure generation capacity as part of
the planned 100MW National Solar Park launched in June 2017.
The ADB yesterday announced the tender conducted by electric utility Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) had attracted 26 bidders, with Thai-based private equity company Prime Road Alternative Company Limited lodging the lowest bid.
“The record low prices show the power
of competition,” said ADB office of public- private partnerships director Siddharta Shah, in a press release issued by the multilateral lender.
“This is a new era for renewable energy development in Cambodia and the region, and particularly for solar power generation. This is good news for EDC and the people of Cambodia. We believe more governments in the region will adopt auctions as a strategy to
procure renewable energy generation capacity and this structure and tariff will serve as a benchmark for future projects.”
The electric utility has supplied the land and transmission access for the National Solar Park with the ADB supplying a loan plus climate finance backing to help fund a new transmission line and substation for the project in Kampong Chhnang province.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Singapore’s SP Group to
install 200 vehicle charging
points
Singapore Utilities firm SP Group has expanded its network of electric-vehicle charging points to 200.
The firm said that among the 200 points were 52 direct-current fast chargers that can fully power up a car in 30 minutes.
By the end of 2020, the company aims to build 1,000 charging points, 250 of which will be fast chargers.
The other 750 points will be alternating- current ones, which take up to an hour for a full charge.
SP’s latest expansion comes after tie-ups with landlords such as CapitaLand, City Developments, Lendlease, Resorts World Sentosa and Soilbuild Group Holdings to install charging points at some properties.
These include Singapore’s first direct- current points in the Central Business District, starting with Republic Plaza in Raffles Place, the first commercial building in the area to house a fast charger.
Week 36 10•September•2019
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