Industry players want more government support in Asean’s energy transition: poll

GOVERNMENT coordination may be a bigger missing piece in enabling South-east Asia’s energy transition than the availability of financing, a survey of 150 regional clean-energy professionals stated.

Regarding the top barriers to driving the change, 64.7 per cent indicated weak government strategies and allocation of subsidies, and 63.3 per cent cited difficulties in implementing cross-border initiatives, based on the survey by the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore released on Thursday (Oct 12).

Both factors, followed by a lack of necessary infrastructure, are considered more pressing than financial determinants, such as lacking green finance, as well as the high cost of producing or implementing renewable solutions.

Additionally, the industry players regarded governments’ collaboration as fundamental to enabling a shared power grid in the region.

The majority of the respondents said cross-border consortiums are important to support the common power grid. Around 70 per cent consider bilateral agreements necessary to facilitate renewables’ trade and expect a regional treaty to lower their investment and operation costs.

Michael Harrison, partner at law firm Baker Botts, emphasised that the Singapore government needs to set agreements with other Asean governments to sort out regulations and facilitate cross-border energy transmission.

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“Government-to-government agreements provide certainty and will enshrine energy security, which will allow governments to access commercial bank funding to develop (cross-border) high-voltage direct current interconnectors.

“Each bilateral agreement will address regulatory issues that will arise, and state whether renewable electrical energy only is to be exported, or whether electrical energy from any generation source can be transmitted,” he added.

Green pipelines

Governments are expected to establish new standards such as carbon taxes and green energy incentives. Around 84.7 per cent consider new governance frameworks to manage energy’s carbon intensity a key to energy transition in the next decade.

More than 60 per cent of the professionals surveyed also expect green pipelines to support the transition, which include subsidies from Western counterparts.

On driving green-finance pipelines, the respondents anticipate greater collaboration between private and public sectors the most, followed by available blended finance structures and government incentives to cut down green financing costs.

In Singapore, the industry players expect more government incentives.

While the country inevitably faces land limitation for renewable infrastructures, the next-greatest barrier to its energy transmission goals lies in the lack of government support.

At the same time, the Republic can do more to streamline regulatory processes for renewable energy projects, and overcome the challenging relations with green-energy trade partners such as Indonesia.

Nonetheless, almost half of the respondents believe that importing green energy remains the best option for Singapore to balance energy security, affordability and sustainability.

The survey findings will inform the discourse on clean energy at the 10th Asia Clean Energy Summit on Oct 24 to 26, which is part of Singapore International Energy Week.