In an exclusive interview with SolarQuarter ASEAN, Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, Executive Director at ASEAN Centre for Energy(ACE) threw light on ASEAN’s solar ambitions and plans, ACE’s initiatives for further development and integration of Solar for the region and the contribution of floating solar in attainment of the regions RE goals.
What are some of the innovative technologies that the ASEAN region is adopting to encourage renewables?
AMS has been actively integrating energy storage systems into the grid to supply
affordable, reliable, and a higher share of renewable electricity. Under the regional framework of ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Phase II:
2021 – 2025, energy storage is highlighted as one of the new technologies to be explored in supporting the transition of ASEAN Power Grid (APG) towards the low carbon system.
Please tell us what steps have been taken by ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) recently to encourage the use of renewables in the region overall?
ACE has been engaging with our dialogue partners and international organisations in carrying out studies, building capacity and sharing information to ASEAN Energy Cooperation stakeholders. ACE is also in collaboration with IRENA to publish a long-term RE roadmap. In addition, ACE has been actively promoting the importance of renewable energy in accelerating the ASEAN low-carbon transition through a series of webinars
and focus group discussions, which can be checked in ACE’s website and social media. These activities also inline with the new sub-theme of APAEC Phase II: 2021-2025,
“Accelerating Energy Transition and Strengthening Energy Resilience through Greater Innovation and Cooperation”, renewable energy would be the focus of regional
energy cooperation.
Do you think floating solar can contribute towards attainment of the region’s renewable target? If you think that floating solar could contribute, what steps need to be taken?
ASEAN region is endowed with vast resources of solar and hydropower. Yet the development of solar farms is often chal lenged with land scarcity due to dense population and limited flat land. With such combinations of two in the existing hydroelectric plant would significantly increase the economy of the plant itself. The colocating of two could double the power output while not requiring new transmission infrastructure. From the technical side, the combination of solar and hydro could complement the intermittency of both sources thus could serve as firm capacity which
would be the perfect solution for an isolated system with poor grid infrastructure.
Read the full interview here: https://solarquarter.com/2021/01/07/solarquarter-asean-e-magazine/
