High oil prices make Asia pursue green energy

High oil prices make Asia pursue green energy
By David Fogarty
Reuters
September 9, 2005

For energy-hungry Asian governments, the answer could literally be blowing in the wind.

Across the region, renewable energy such as solar, wind and geothermal power is gaining ever greater credence as a way to curb the region’s appetite for oil and cut runaway import bills.

With oil prices near $70, and expected by many analysts to stay over $50 through the end of 2006, governments believe alternative energy will help keep their economies growing.

Renewable energy in China, a strategic future? With a host of environmental and domestic social concerns — and potential future international conflict — China could be well suited to pursue renewable energy sources. China’s failed bid for American petroleum firm Unocal may prompt it to further focus on its development of alternative energy sources. The country has recently passed a renewable energy law that requires power operators to buy electricity from alternative energy producers and the government has increased spending for research on wind, solar, biofuel, and tidal technologies.

The environmental benefits are also dawning on populous nations such as China, where pollution from burning fossil fuels is causing health costs to soar and growing urbanization combined with a booming economy means more appliances from hairdryers to air-conditioning are plugged in to an already-stretched grid.

“In the next 20 years China will be building (the equivalent) of a new Shanghai each year … we have to find a way to absorb these people in a way that doesn’t bring down the planet,” said Robert Watson, Director of the International Energy Project at the U.S.’s Natural Resources Defense Council.

Air pollution could be one catalyst for change, according to David Dollar, World Bank director for China.

“China has 20 of the 30 most air-polluted cities in the world, and that is primarily because of the use of coal for power generation and in industry. This imposes a very direct health cost on China,” he said at an energy conference this week.

One of the world’s biggest energy consumers, it already aims to get one-tenth of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 but is considering setting its sights even higher.

“By 2020 renewable energy (could) account for 15 percent of energy production in China, including large-scale hydropower projects,” Shi Lishan, director of renewable energy at the policy-setting National Development and Reform Commission, told the conference.

China plans to build its first offshore wind power plant next year, while Greenpeace has estimated Chinese wind power potential at 1 million megawatts (MW), more than twice China’s current total installed power generating capacity of 440,700 MW.

GIVE ME STEAM

Indonesia sees power from the ground but needs investment.

“Indonesia has big geothermal reserves that can generate more than 25,000 megawatts of electricity,” said an energy ministry official in Jakarta.

Related articles Poor need renewable energy sources says Annan (August 23, 2005) In a new report, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says energy poverty is seriously impeding socio-economic development in the world’s poorest countries. Noting that in the developing countries some 1.6 billion people still lack access to electricity and about 2.4 billion continue to rely on traditional biomass like fuelwood for cooking and heating, Annan calls for intensified efforts to promote renewable energy sources for the poor. China announces wave power station technology advancements (July 27, 2005) China announced that it has developed typhoon-resistant technologies for the world’s first experimental wave power station. The announcement comes two months after a Norwegian firm signed an agreement to construct a commercial wave farm to harvest electricity from sea swells off the coast of Scottland. China to add wind power capacity (August 15, 2005) In recent years China has significantly expanded its interests in renewable energy sources including wind, solar, biofuels, tidal, and small hydroelectric dams. Below is an article from the Associated Press on a planned expansion of the country’s wind power capacity. Chinese economy drives road-building and deforestation in the Amazon (April 17, 2005) The state of Madre de Dios in southeastern Peru is home to mountainous cloud forests and low-lying rainforests containing the richest biodiversity on Earth. It may also soon be home to a transcontinental highway. If all goes according to plan and schedule, by June 2006, there will be an asphalt road connecting Sao Paulo to Lima, and more importantly, the Pacific Peruvian ports of Matarini, Ilo and San Juan. The east-west Carretera Transoceanica — “transoceanic highway” — as the project is called, is viewed as a long-awaited and close to finalized dream for proponents, namely the Peruvian and Brazilian governments, agricultural groups and local residents, and as a nightmare for environmentalists. Timber hungry China moves into Africa (April 20, 2005) China, as the fastest growing economy in the world, is poised to make significant impacts on the global market and the global environment, especially with its expanding involvement with nations rich in natural resources but deficient in economic and political stability. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Africa where China has rapidly bolstered its ties in recent years with the majority of the continent’s 54 nations. China’s Imminent Water Crisis (May 30, 2005) China has long suffered from alternating periods of severe flooding and drought. Combined with high pollution levels and a history of heedless and haphazard policies, the country is witnessing a precipitous drop in this most essential supply. High ranking officials and international agencies alike are deeply concerned about the situation and with good reason

“However, lack of investors in geothermal development is slowing it down. The government has to give incentives to this project,” said the official, who declined to be identified.

Director-General of Electricity, Yogo Pratomo, said the government would continue to develop renewable energy such as solar power but costs were a problem.

The Philippines, the world’s second top producer of geothermal power, says high oil prices are helping the green drive.

“Indirectly, it (high oil price) has created a sense of urgency in developing renewable energy because of its growing advantage over fossil-based fuels,” Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla told Reuters in a recent interview.

India, which produces only 30 percent of the oil it consumes, is encouraging power generation from renewable sources, which account for about 4 percent of its output. The country is already one of the top five wind power producers in the world.

“Renewable sources of energy was always a top priority, particularly in recent years,” said a spokesman for India’s ministry of non-conventional energy sources.

“The current surge in oil prices makes it all the more important that a greater impetus is given to harnessing renewable energy in a country like India,” he said.

INVENTIVE

Smaller Asian nations, lacking the resources or investment to develop large-scale renewable energy projects, have devised more inventive ways to cut oil use.

Bangladesh said this week it would introduce a two-day weekend from Friday as part of an austerity drive and has ordered all public transport, including 150,000 diesel-belching buses and lorries, to use domestically produced compressed natural gas.

In Cambodia, the government has ordered ministries to cut their energy use by 10 percent, while neighboring Thailand, a net crude importer, is trying to persuade motorists and motorcyclists to switch to biofuels and domestically produced natural gas.

The government wants to reduce a ballooning oil import bill by mixing nine parts gasoline and one part ethanol — made from sugarcane or cassava — to produce gasohol.

Sri Lanka, which used to produce most of its electricity by hydropower, has had to turn to oil and coal to meet growth demands but aims to exploit biomass, small hydro plants, solar, sea waves and wind power to cut oil imports.

(Additional reporting by Emma Graham-Harrison in BEIJING, Dolly Aglay in MANILA, Himangshu Watts in NEW DELHI, Muklis Ali in JAKARTA, Serajul Islam Quadir in DHAKA, Nopporn Wong-Anan in BANGKOK, and Arjuna Wickramasinghe in COLOMBO)

ARTICLE CONTENT COPYRIGHT the Reuters. THIS CONTENT IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.

mongabay.com users agree to the following as a condition for use of this material:
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental issues. This constitutes ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If you are the copyright owner and would like this content removed from mongabay.com, please contact me.