Clean energy sectors face a murky future with solar and wind industries embroiled in recent trade disputes and the European Union moving to restrict crop-based biofuels in its transport fuel mix.
But despite these challenges, chairman of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore Edwin Khew says the outlook for renewable energy industries remains positive.
Speaking to Eco-Business in a recent interview, Mr Khew said: “If you look deeper, they are all positive happenings for the market and for technology.”
For example, stiff competition and a glut in the solar parts market - which US and Europe solar manufacturers say is due to Chinese firms flooding the market with below-cost products in a process known as ‘dumping’ - has cut prices for solar equipment in half.
Mr Khew noted that lower prices for solar and wind manufacturing components have made wind and solar farms more affordable, allowing them to compete with fossil fuels and reach grid parity sooner.
“This should attract greater investment into these renewable energy sectors where returns on investment are seen to be shorter and more attractive,” he explained.
Mr Khew, whose organization provides a way for clean energy companies and funders to meet and collaborate on projects, noted that viable solutions to clean energy challenges will require cooperation and dialogue amongst government, private sector, academics and financial institutions.
The upcoming Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), to be held from 22 to 25 October at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, will feature such a discussion on future energy challenges.
Mr Khew noted that this year’s conference, with the theme “Shaping a New Energy Landscape”, is a great opportunity to “acclerate clean energy technologies, businesses and economies”.
Energy security is one of the biggest challenges facing countries, including Singapore, which as a city-state lacks its own conventional energy sources.
“Today, there is always the need to find better and cheaper ways of producing energy, water, and food. This is especially true with the added challenges of climate change impacts such as increased typhoons, hurricanes, droughts, floods and earthquakes,” he noted.
“The irony is that it is the production and thirst for energy that is causing all these problems,” he said, referring to the high volumes of carbon dioxide that the fossil fuel industries contribute to the atmosphere.
As part of the annual energy week, the solar industry will also convene at the PV Asia Pacific Expo & Conference, where solar companies, policymakers and academics will be able to compare notes on the challenges facing the sector.
Matt Daly, head of Asia Pacific for Norway-headquartered REC Solar, said he is not unduly concerned about the industry’s current slump, which in recent months has caused job cuts, factory closures and bleak forecasts for many manufacturers.
REC sees the waning subsidies and shuttered manufacturing facilities as natural occurrences as the industry matures towards its next stage of growth. “Despite these challenges, the opportunities for solar remain bright and its potential economic benefits are still largely untapped,” he told Eco-Business.
Much of that opportunity – at least for the stronger players who can ride out the period of consolidation – will be in Asia.
“Asia is definitely a focused market for us because it is a region with high insolation levels and outlying, diesel-dependent communities where solar can deliver great benefits,” said Mr Daly.
As for biofuels, Dr Christoph Weber, president of global biofuel firm JATRO, said that he welcomed the turnaround of the EU energy policy, as crop-based biofuels have led to unwanted consequences worldwide by contributing to the increase of food prices, poverty, world hunger and deforestation.
“The EC is finally recognizing the fact that the use of food-crops for fuel is problematic, if not counterproductive,” he noted.
He added that it was good news for the jatropha industry, which produces advanced biofuels and bio-kerosene, because the plant is grown on land unsuited for agriculture. Globally, anywhere between 500 million and 2 billion hectares of such land is available, he estimated.
“Producing jatropha on marginal land will keep food on the table and the rainforest untouched,” said Dr Weber.
JATRO, which has secured land use rights for commercial scale jatropha and bio energy crop production on more than 1 million hectares in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, is producing biofuels for the aviation industry.
The aviation industry is focused on finding sustainable, reliable sources of biofuels to mix with conventional kerosene, and they want biofuel production scaled up as quickly as possible, he added.
Dr Weber is one of 25 experts who will be speaking at an inaugural Asia Future Energy Forum at SIEW. Some other high level speakers at SIEW include International Energy Agency executive director Maria van der Hoeven, Royal Dutch Shell executive vice-president of strategy and planning Ruth Cairnie, International Renewable Energy Agency director-general Adnan Z Amin, and Carbon War Room president Jose Maria Figueres, who is also the former president of Costa Rica.
Co-organized by Singapore’s Energy Market Authority and the Energy Studies Institute think-tank, the fifth annual SIEW will focus on four topics: Options for the Future Energy Mix; Financing Tomorrow’s Energy Needs; Keeping the Door to 2°C Open; and Connecting the Dots: Energy-Water-Food Nexus.
Ministers, policymakers and business leaders will discuss these and other issues at SIEW, which last year attracted over 20,000 delegates from over 60 countries.
Click here to find out more about Singapore International Energy Week 2012.
