Page 12 - AsiaElec Week 03

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
[Indonesia] achieving its renewable targets and to supporting its sustainable growth.”
Masdar is currently involved with 5GW of solar capacity globally.
The UAE signed various agreements with Indonesia earlier this month, including a deal to invest
$23bn in the Asian country through a sovereign wealth fund created by its President Joko Widodo.
SOLAR
Solar mini-grids to take
off in Myanmar, support
electrification ambitions
Solar mini-grids in Myanmar are expected to take off as the private sector sees solar energy as a potentially commercially viable solution in Myanmar’s journey towards full electrification.
With a $1.6mn mini-grid installed, more than a thousand households on the island of Yesagyo in Magway Region were connected to electricity for the first time last month. The project was partly funded by the World Bank and Myanmar firm Parami Energy.
Parami Energy said they aimed to eventually electrify the rest of the households - more than 4000 - on the island with the mini-grids.
Mandalay Yoma Energy also sees the potential in the sector and operates over
40 solar hybrid mini-grids Myanmar. It is a joint venture between French Engie Group’s GDF International SAS and Singapore-based consultancy Sol Partners.
CEO Kapil Smith expects his firm to double the electricity generation capacity this year.
“It is fulfilling to see how the sector has grown in Myanmar in the past two years versus other countries which have been trying for years,” he said.
The rising business interest in Myanmar solar mini-grids reflects the vast potential of solar energy in the country as well as the role solar panels could play in bridging the nation’s energy deficit.
STORAGE
Wärtsilä’s new 100 MW energy storage project in
Southeast Asia to boost regional grid stability
Wärtsilä has signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for a new 100MW/100MWh total capacity energy storage project in Southeast Asia.
The energy storage system facility, including Wärtsilä’s GEMS, an advanced energy management software platform, and GridSolv solution, will be used for grid support purposes.
The order was booked with Wärtsilä in Q4 2019. This contract comes in addition to the similar size contract announced in July 2019.
Wärtsilä is enabling the transition towards a 100% renewable energy future around the world by designing and building flexible systems that integrate renewables, traditional thermal assets and energy storage.
In 2018, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) committed to meeting 23% of its primary energy needs from renewables by 2025.
The region is aiming to leverage its abundant wind and solar resources and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, especially as grid systems develop and economies grow.
Wärtsilä’s new 100 MW/100 MWh energy storage project will help provide some of the reliability necessary to support South East Asia’s transition to renewable energy sources. WÄRTSILÄ
CLIMATE CHANGE
CEOs fail to take climate change seriously
Climate issues are set to be one of the main talking points at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos this week, but
a survey of CEOs by PwC shows that they are not even ranked among the top ten threats to business growth, AP reported
PwC said climate change and environmental issues are ranked as the 11th biggest threat to their companies’ growth prospects.
Though up one spot from the same survey a year ago, climate-related issues lag way behind other concerns such as over- regulation, which ranks as the number 1 worry. Other concerns in the top 10 include trade conflicts, lack of skills among workers and populism in politics.
According to the survey, 24% of CEOs are “extremely concerned” about climate-related issues, compared to 38% for over-regulation.
At the World Economic Forum, CEOs and politicians like U.S. President Donald Trump are set to face mounting pressure from environmental groups and activists like Swedish teen Greta Thunberg to respond to the climate emergency.
The meeting follows last week’s revelation that the last decade was the hottest ever recorded on Earth.
The survey also found that the number of CEOs who are pessimistic about the economic outlook has almost doubled over the past year, with 53% predicting a decline in the rate of growth this year, up from 29% in 2019. This
is the highest level of pessimism recorded by PwC since it started surveying the issue in 2012 and illustrates how the trade conflict between the U.S. and China has weighed on the global economy.
PwC said pessimism was widespread but particularly so in North America, Western Europe and the Middle East.
“Given the lingering uncertainty over trade tensions, geopolitical issues and the lack of agreement on how to deal with climate change, the drop in confidence in economic growth is not surprising — even if the scale of the change in mood is,” said Bob Moritz, Chairman, of the PwC Network.
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Week 03 22•January•2020