Commentary

Back to the future? – A shakeup in industrial solar

Michael Graetzel of Switzerland, is announced as the winner of the 2017 Global Energy Prize for his “transcendent merits in the development of low cost and efficient solar cells”. The Global Energy Prize is the world’s leading prize for advanced energy research awarded annually and he will be honored as this year’s laureate with a nice gold medal (and the US$693,000 is a nice touch too). The announcement had all the trappings of typical of a big media release as well.

Commentary

Back to the future? – A shakeup in industrial solar

Commentary

Will Singapore's power sector bear the brunt of its carbon tax?

Earlier this year, the Singapore government announced that it will impose a tax on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from 2019. The tax amount, which is yet to be finalized, will lie in the range of S$10 to S$20 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The imposition of a price on carbon emissions is key to the overall strategy of achieving Singapore’s emission reduction target under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Commentary

Building the business case for hydropower companies to employ more women

Hydropower is traditionally a male-dominated field. This is not to say that female engineers, hydrologists, plant managers, or even CEOs do not exist. They do. But globally, women are grossly underrepresented in the hydropower field. Further, even when present, their talent is more often underutilized. This must change; simply because there is a business case to integrate more women into the hydropower-industry workforce.

Commentary

Is net metering the right way forward for PV rooftops in Asia?

Net metering started by being a very sexy idea in regards to the development of rooftops. Maybe very similar to the infamous feed-in tariffs (FiT). And as with FiT, it ignored one of the most important ingredients in any business: scale and competition.

Commentary

Renewable energy outlook for the Year of the Fire Rooster

Welcome to the year of the fire rooster, a year unlike the previous year of the monkey which followed the path of curiosity, the rooster is disciplined and takes charge. The dominating fire element in this year of the rooster expects to bring natural prosperity to fire industries and water industries, as water subdues fire. The energy sector including renewable energy, stock market, and finance are fire elements whilst water element industries are logistics, communication, and shipping.

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Will the Rooster wake up Southeast Asia's energy markets?

Monkey proved to be a subdued year for the Southeast Asia energy sector – so will the Rooster wake up the region from its slumber?

Commentary

Singapore looking to develop policy framework for energy storage

In order to fulfil its commitments under the Paris climate change agreement, Singapore’s climate action plan includes a number of strategies, including reduction of emissions from its power generation sector. Already, Singapore generates more than 95% electricity using combined cycle gas generators; thus, it needs to increase the share of Solar PV to achieve further reductions.

Commentary

A new look at portfolio investing in renewables

Like a certain iconic dessert advertisement, “Nobody doesn’t like renewables”. Yet, renewables have been difficult to invest in for a variety of reasons. From the perspective of publicly traded portfolio investors, renewables investments in emerging markets has been especially tricky given the particular nature of renewables in terms of being narrowly associated with characteristics tied to size, location, climate, etc.

Commentary

Is solar power really cheaper than wind power?

For those of us out there who are part of the Renewable Energy story of this century, we have seen PV dropping from more than 4 US$/W to the current 0.9 US$/W or even less. This in a span of a bit more than ten years. Wind onshore on the other hand started on a remarkable 2 US$/W and moved quite fast to 1.5 US$/W being currently on the 1.2 US$/W or a bit below.

Commentary

How a strategic environmental assessment could help change Myanmar's approach to hydro

Optimising project siting and configuration are the most effective environmental and social risk avoidance measures in hydropower development. Siting is often decided very early on in project development, primarily on a project-by project basis.

Commentary

The hidden costs of Variable Renewable Energy – or just urban myths?

Almost all in this sector have already read many texts and technical reports on the hidden costs of intermittent sources or Variable Renewable Power (VRP) as solar PV and wind. By the way, I am intentionally not including CSP, as it has storage capacity and thus can even provide baseload power.

Commentary

How does South East Asia's coal plans fit with Paris commitments?

Just under a year on from COP 21, three of the main players – the US, China, and India – have now ratified the Paris treaty on climate change initiatives. What does this mean for South East Asia and its energy policies? To date the region has yet to show any major shift from favouring coal as the fuel of choice.

Commentary

Scaling Solar – a new way of doing solar PV

Many of the PV industry players have already wished for opportunities that were faster, easier, and better defined than actually develop a PV project from zero, though some of us have developed pretty neat skills doing exactly this. I have already commented on solar parks and their impact, which so far has been remarkable in PV and CSP.

Commentary

Electricity derivative market for the Philippines

Maturing into its ten years of commercial operations, the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) has seen its share of volatility and regulatory intervention. Spot prices in WESM have been strongly driven by events, spiking on an almost annual basis on plant maintenance shutdown, typhoons, or fuel shortages.

Commentary

Hybridisation – energy sources, intelligence, and human consumption

Several months ago, I happened to see an NHK World's web-based documentary on a Japanese city called Kashiwa-no-ha (KNH) "Smart City" – an institutional collaborative initiative partnering municipal (Chiba Prefecture, Kashiwa City), commercial/business, and educational (universities) entities1.

Commentary

Here's why solar parks are paying off

The solar park concept is similar to an economic zone dedicated to the generation of power through solar energy and also to the manufacturing of solar energy components. A Solar Park will hold a number of solar power plants and manufacturing outfits, each developed by separate or the same groups/promoters.

Commentary

Educating electricity customers – One step closer to meet their expectations

Customers' satisfaction is now gaining vital importance at power distribution companies (DISCOMs) around the globe. Electricity customers of yesterday are much engaged, empowered, and informed today.

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