New and Renewable Energy Technologies Expert Group

Final Minutes

14th Meeting

New and Renewable Energy Technologies Expert Group

Melbourne, Australia

March 12, 1999

Introduction

The 14th meeting of the Expert Group on New and Renewable Energy Technologies (NRET) was held on March 12, 1999 in Melbourne and was hosted by Australia. The meeting was preceded by a two day workshop on Renewable Sustainable Communities which was held jointly with the APEC Expert Sub-Group on Energy for Sustainable Communities. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Liang-Jyi Fang, Deputy General Director, Energy and Resources Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute. Attendance included representatives from Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America.

Chairman Liang-Jyi Fang convened the meeting, thanking Australia and the host organizations of the City of Melbourne and CitiPower and summarized the purpose of the meeting.

A final agenda was distributed, reviewed, and approved as tabled.

Agenda Item 1: A Master Plan for Renewable Energy in Indonesia

Ms. Rina Novita distributed a summary report on a “Master Plan of New and Renewable Energy Development in Indonesia, Based on a Study Conducted by the Center of Energy Studies, University of Indonesia”. The study listed as priority technologies, PV, biomass and wind technologies. Ms. Novita stated that although their have been many studies on renewable energy technologies in Indonesia, they have not been integrated.

Agenda Item 2: Green IPP’s

Mr. Kraft-Oliver, from the International Institute for Energy Efficiency in Bangkok noted that the project came from a meeting with Green Peace. Similar to a conventional Independent Power Producer (IPP) that produces electricity for a profit, a Green IPP develops renewable energy resources and energy efficiency. A Green IPP builds and operates a package of multiple renewable and energy efficiency resources as a single project. It might have the same distribution of technologies as the Philippine national energy plan. With energy efficiency measures, the overall cost per kWh is competitive with coal-fired energy, US$ .050/kWh, compared to US$ .048 for coal. With added externality costs of .002 for the IPP and .030 for coal, there is a clear benefit to the Green IPP. There are also jobs-creation benefits which can be a factor of three greater than with fossil energy systems.

Barriers may include dispatchability, although this may not be a problem below a certain threshold. Power pools may impose constraints on energy efficiency valuation as a resource. Next steps might be to explore dispatchability of such a multiple-technology resource, developing policy support, and pricing in a power pool setting. This fits in to a restructured, de-regulated utility industry.

Agenda Item 3: Current Renewable Energy Activities in Thailand

Ms. Chananan Buakhiew from the National Energy Policy Office (NEPO) presented a summary of recent Thailand activities and efforts to develop renewable projects. She noted that NEPO is a planning and analysis agency, with the technical expertise coming from NGO’s and universities, such as a new renewable energy center at King Monkut Institute of Technology (KMIT). Ms. Buakhiew reviewed the current projects being funded by the Energy Conservation Fund. Projects included a 100 solar rooftop program, landfill gas, and pig waste to energy. Ms. Buakhiew also noted that NEPO is establishing a renewable energy park and associated training program. Ms. Buakhiew noted that biomass is a priority for Thailand. Thailand is also examining the feasibility of installing a 4 MW PV based electricity generation facility. Finally, Ms. Buakhiew stated that Thailand recognized that although fossil technologies may have lower initial costs than renewable energy technologies such as PV, the consideration of the environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies could make them worthwhile.

Agenda Item 4: Current Renewable Energy Activities in the Philippines

Ms. Felicisima Arriola from the Philippines Department of Energy presented an overview of the rural development electrification activities. Government policy has established the Energy Resource for the Alleviation of Poverty (ERAP) program. The objective of the Program is not limited to the provision of electricity to marginalized households but shall also spur rural development with the economic goals of poverty alleviation and empowerment of poor people. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has consulted on the project. Barangays (villages) will be profiled, including the willingness and ability to pay and interest in electricity. Ms. Arriola stressed that it is important to draw a direct link between renewable energy development and economic development.

Agenda Item 5: Discussion/Follow-Up on Renewable Energy for Sustainable Communities Workshop

Mr. Serfass summarized the conclusions, reporting that it was successful in achieving the interest of industry and gaining business involvement in conclusions and setting priorities.

Mr. Mohamed (Canada) suggested a workshop on the tools for resource assessment and implementation. He also suggested that case studies and examples be highlighted, with lessons learned. He also suggested that a representative of the World Bank could be invited to participate as an ex-officio member in this Work Group, and indeed of the Expert Group itself.

Mr. van Rest (United States) said we should not try to duplicate World Bank activities, hence it would be useful to have World Bank representatives present as ex-officio members. He suggested that the Expert Group should identify project areas where renewable energy technologies are linked directly to an economy's stated development goals. Examples could be linking renewable energy to rural economic development or using photovoltaic remote communications for rural education or the provision and delivery of healthcare services in remote areas. The Expert Group should attempt to identify “marquis value” and seek funding from appropriate supporting organizations. Other potential projects areas included the development of the Green IPP concept and following up on the recently completed Expert Group project on resource assessment which identified priority needs such as the establishment of a centralized data center for APEC renewable energy resource information.

Agenda Item 6: Discussion Expert Group Implementation Plan

Mr. Bloyd, the NRET Secretariat, reviewed the Expert Group Implementation Plan. The U.S. Department of Energy is providing a home for an APEC web page for sharing information. He proposed that sharing experiences may be most important. A discussion among all participants yielded the following suggested high priority items:

1.Explore rural electrification for rural enterprise development through renewable energy

2.Information exchange, focusing on success stories

3.Poverty alleviation

4.Niche market support for fuel cells

5.Needs and resource assessment to satisfy end-use demands

6.Share information on renewable energy service companies to attract capital for rural enterprise development or to meet other specific objectives like tourism

7.Financial, technical barriers in introducing new and renewable energy technologies

8. Renewable energy linked to telecommunications for rural development

9. Needs assessments are important and maybe we need to specify how to do a needs assessment.

10. Explore and develop the concept of a green IPP – what’s been done, lessons learned and how to move forward

11.Sharing of case studies and success stories

12. Identify contacts, web pages, networks of researchers, financiers

13. Get APEC utilities involved, identifying renewable advocates and develop utility to utility involvement – maybe develop a utility renewable group or project, beginning with one technology like PV first

14. Strengthen the Group’s partnering with the private sector as we

implement these ideas, particularly utility to utility relationships

Mr. Schwager, of the APEC Energy Working Group Secretariat, suggested

that this Experts Group focus, and build on, the results of previous projects. He stated that it is important to link efforts to the "Terms of Reference" for the Expert Group. All EWG Experts Groups should try to keep their work programs in line with APEC Ministers, especially Energy Ministers, priorities. Priorities of APEC Ministers include human resource development, infrastructure development, and mobilizing private capital for infrastructure. An EWG workshop in Oakland on this latter topic is planned in conjunction with EWG 17 19-20 April. New databases projects are being discouraged by APEC so successful database project proposals are more difficult to prepare. The Expert Group should think about how to measure tangible results of projects. This is more difficult for projects focussed on information exchange, where performance measures are hard to quantify.

Mr. van Rest commented that APEC ministers have been relatively silent on renewable energy support. He suggested that the Experts Group identify several key areas or projects that should be raised to the Minister level. Mr. Schwager responded that the Experts Group should define areas that the Experts Group is working on within the priorities of Energy Ministers, including human resource development and infrastructure development.

Mr. Bloyd said the themes have been developed in this meeting. Mr. Renee will propose two or three work items that capture the most important themes of the discussion and presented with the minutes.

Agenda Item 7: Progress/Status of Current Projects

Mr.Hayashi (Japan) reported on the results of the "New and Renewable Energy Seminar (1998-1999 APEC Energy R&D and Technology Transfer Seminar)," which was held immediately after the 13th Meeting of the Expert Group in Okinawa, Japan on October 7-9, 1998. The seminar consisted of a half-day workshop and a one-day symposium and was held under the theme "Overcoming Obstacles and Promoting Private Sector Investment in the Application of New and Renewable Energy Technologies in Remote Areas". Over 100 people attended the seminar, and the proceedings, which were distributed to Expert Group members, include the conclusions of the workshop and presentations given in the symposium.

Dr. Fang reported on a Chinese Taipei Workshop on the Technology Development and Utilization of Renewable Energy, 22 - 26 March 1999 (agenda was distributed).

Mr. David Renee, US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, reported on Assessment of Integrated Rural Energy and Village Power Programs for Potential Collaborative Projects in APEC Region. The project began in November 1998, with a workshop held in Beijing 5-8 March 1999. The next step is the evaluation of models as a component of rural development planning China. He also reported on the Development of Analytic Methodologies to Incorporate Renewable Energy in Domestic Energy and Economic Planning. This project is investigating the LEAP (China), ENPEP (Thailand) and MARKAL (Philippines or Indonesia) energy planning models for their ability to incorporate renewables. Most models to do not adequately include renewables for green house gas reduction analysis.

Mr. Schwager, APEC EWG, requested information on other projects, and was given a copy of the Feasibility Study on Landfill Gas Recovery in Thailand that was a self funded US project which was completed last year. Mr. Schwager noted that new project proposals must be submitted in electronic format by 7 April.

Agenda Item 8: Presentation, discussion and ranking of New Initiatives

Five written proposals for funding were presented. Four were developed by the U.S. and presented by Mr. Renee and one was developed by Australia:

1. Leveling the Playing Field: Evaluating and Reforming Energy Subsidies to Benefit Renewable Energy Development

2. Development of Training Materials for Rural Electrification Planning Using NREL’s Analytical Models

3. Assessing the Social Value of Renewable Energy Projects in APEC Economies

4. APEC Renewable Energy Database (withdrawn for further development)

5. Technical Investment Guidelines for Solar Water Pumping and Related Irrigation Technologies for Sustainable Agricultural Expansion

Canada suggested a workshop on resource assessment tools and case studies as two ideas for Group action. Mr. van Rest pointed out that a lot of case study information is available on the CADDET web site.

Discussion of a resource assessment tool workshop, by technology, received support. Mr. van Rest suggested adding GIS capability, and then preparing training materials. Mr. Kraft-Oliver, Thailand, suggested tying it to specific projects in APEC countries. Canada and US will consider submitting a joint project concept for a resource assessment tool workshop. Mr. Serfass, US, suggested that industry could be tapped for free assistance so that, for instance, Zond’s Keith Avery might help in reviewing a wind resource assessment component of the workshop, giving it a reality check for what projects actually need.

The four projects were ranked (#1-3, and 5 above) and the results were that they were all considered equally ranked. The point scores were too close to distinguish. They will all be submitted for funding.

Agenda Item 8: NRET Administration & Operations

Mr.Hayashi (Japan) proposed that the next APEC seminar self-funded by Japan be held back-to-back with the 15th Expert Group meeting. The Expert Group welcomed the suggestion, and Mr.Hayashi stated that a formal project proposal would be submitted to Expert Group members once the location of the 15th meeting was finalized. The Chairman thanked Japan for supporting the Expert Group.

Thailand proposed that the next meeting be in Thailand. It was accepted by the group, and suggested for sometime in late October.

Mr. van Rest noted that the Expert Group did not come to closure on the themes and implementation plan. He suggested taking the priorities from this meeting and correlating them to the Energy Working Group priorities and submitting the results in the form of a draft implementation plan to the Experts Group at the next meeting.

The Secretariat noted that draft minutes of the meeting will be e-mailed to Expert Group members for their approval.

Chairman Fang thanked the Group for their support and patience. He will remain as Chair until the next meeting. Nominations of candidates for chair have to be made before the next meeting so that a new chair can be elected at that meeting.

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