Page 8 - AsiaElec Week 01 2021

AsiaElec NEWS IN BRIEF AsiaElec

CLIMATE and Chief Executive Officer. making landfall in November. Altogether
“In line with our global strategy to invest the combined onslaught of the five obliged
Australia fails to improve in renewables and LNG infrastructure, in turbine operations to be suspended for two
weeks.
Vietnam we continue to make good progress
2030 climate goals on the development of the 450 TBTU Son My renewable energy industry at a time when the
This has knocked confidence in the
LNG terminal with PetroVietnam (PVN) and
Australia has not raising its climate the 2,250 MW Son My 2 combined cycle gas government of Narendra Modi is working
change goals in its National Determined power plant.” hard to expand it.
Contribution(NDC) sent to the UN. AES owns a 51% equity interest in Mong Wind power generation capacity has
The Australian government defended its Duong 2, South Korea’s Posco Energy significantly increased in recent years. It is
unchanged plan to cut 2005-level emissions Company Limited owns 30% and Stable concentrated across India’s windiest southern,
by 26-28% by 2030 as an “ambitious, fair and Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of western and northern regions. By the end of
responsible” effort to keep global average China Investment Corporation, owns the September 2020 the total installed capacity
temperature rises to below two degrees. remaining 19%. was 38,124 megawatts (MW), surpassed only
“The target is a floor on Australia’s The construction of Mong Duong 2 was by China, the US and Germany.
ambition,” a statement released by the completed in 2015 under a Build-Own- Unlike other parts of the world where the
Australian government to the UN said. “We Transfer (BOT) contract, with a 25-year wind blows in fairly regular patterns all year
are aiming to over-achieve on this target and Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with round, India gets 70% of its wind between
newly released emissions projections show Vietnam Electricity (EVN), a state-owned May and September, coinciding with the
Australia is on track to meet and beat our utility. south-west monsoon. Once the rains and the
2030 target without relying on past over- AES clouds have gone, solar power largely replaces
achievement. wind in supplying renewable energy.
Angus Taylor, the Energy and Emissions But in 2020 the normal pattern was
Reduction Minister, said Australia’s emissions WIND different, with the windy season in southern
trajectory had improved significantly in the India lasting till November. This brought no
past two years alone, with projected pollution Cyclones reduce India’s benefit, though: the turbines could not be left
out to 2030 coming in some 639mn tonnes of to operate at all, as the wind speed during the
carbon dioxide-equivalent. wind power generation cyclones was very high.
“This improvement is largely due to the Even though World Bank experts and
Morrison government committing $5.3bn to Although India’s windy season was longer others are predicting a large expansion of
new emissions reduction measures through than usual in 2020, a series of cyclones that wind power in India, including offshore,
the last two budgets,” he said. hit the country’s coasts reduced the amount its unpredictability is sapping the market’s
“We are confident that we will meet and of electricity generated by wind. The storms confidence.
beat our 2030 target without relying on over- forced operators to shut down the turbines to It is too early to say whether climate change
achievement from our Kyoto-era targets,” he prevent damage, which caused a 20% drop in has anything to do with the change in weather
said. “But make no mistake, those credits were production. patterns. Ajay Devaraj, secretary-general of
hard-earned by Australians.” India witnessed five cyclones last year, the Indian Wind Power Association, says
with the two latest, Nivar and Burevi, that although wind power production varies

COAL-FIRED GENERATION

AES agrees to sell Mong
Duong 2 coal-fired plant in

Vietnam

AES Corporation signed an agreement on
December 31, 2020 to sell its entire equity
interest in the 1,242MW Mong Duong 2 coal-
fired power plant in Vietnam to a consortium
led by a US-based investor.
This transaction is expected to close in
late 2021 or early 2022, subject to customary
approvals, including from the Government of
Vietnam and the minority partners in Mong
Duong 2.
“We have had a very positive experience
in developing, building and owning Mong
Duong 2 and Vietnam remains an important
growth market for AES, where we look
forward to contributing to the country’s
transition to a more sustainable energy
future,” said Andrés Gluski, AES President

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 06•January•2021