Certain renewable energy technologies (RETs) sources, particularly solar, micro-hydro, wind and biomass have been making quite significant progress in Asia ...
Renewable Energy Technologies in Asia: A Review of Current Status S.C. Bhattacharya and S. Kumar Energy Program, School of Environment, Resources & Development Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4 Klong Luang Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Abstract Many developing countries of Asia are currently poised for rapid economic growth and industrialization. The energy demand of these countries is therefore expected to start to increase rather significantly in the near future. In fact, the future growth of global energy demand is expected to be mostly from industrialization of the presently developing countries. However, the finiteness of fossil fuel reserves and large scale environmental impacts caused by their widespread use, particularly climate change, suggest that harnessing of non-fossil energy resources is vital for steering the global energy supplies towards a sustainable path. Certain renewable energy technologies (RETs) sources, particularly solar, micro-hydro, wind and biomass have been making quite significant progress in Asia recently. Solar water heating is becoming increasingly popular in many countries. Although cost of electricity from solar cells is still high compared with electricity from the grid, many countries have initiated photovoltaics projects for electrification of remote areas. So far as wind energy is concerned, the most significant progress so far has been made in India with a total installed capacity of 820 MWe and China, where the installed capacity is about 70 MWe. Significant programs on mini / micro-hydro exist in China, India, Vietnam and Nepal where the approximate installed capacity so far is 17,000 MW, 138 MW, 61.4 MW and 8.7 MW respectively. China, where more than 5 million family biogas plants and 120 million improved stoves have been installed, has made the most significant progress in the field of biomass energy. In the member countries of ASEAN also application of renewable energy is currently gaining momentum. The current status of renewable energy use in many Asian countries is discussed in the paper.
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Introduction The late eighties and early nineties saw the emergence of worldwide concerns regarding the environmental consequences of heavy dependence on fossil fuels, particularly global warming, urban air pollution, acid rain etc. Currently, a near consensus appears to exist that renewable energy would need to be promoted if global energy supplies are to be placed on an environmentally sustainable path. Thus, the UN Committee on New and Renewable Sources of Energy and on Energy for Development considers renewable energy sources as one of the key elements in the overall strategy for sustainable development and that “the dissemination of information, training and networking the benefits and characteristics of the renewable sources should remain a priority area” (UN, 1994). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified increasing use of renewable energy and efficient energy conversion/utilization as important options for reducing GHG emissions.
Importance Currently, the capita energy consumption in the developing countries is much lower compared with the developed countries. However, compared with the developed countries, the energy consumption of the developing countries, is expected to rise faster because of their higher economic growth rate and industrialization. An example of the trend of rapidly rising energy consumption in the developing countries can be seen from the data presented in Table 1. During 1985-1995, the commercial energy consumption of the developing countries of Asia has increased by 72% compared with 17% rise of the world commercial energy consumption. Considering the expected rise in energy demand of the developing countries as they undergo industrialization, there is little doubt that the global energy demand will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. Meeting the rising energy demand without unacceptable large-scale impacts on the environment is currently emerging as a daunting challenge for energy scientists/engineers. As pointed by Reddy et al (1997), “a fundamental change in energy systems is required to make them compatible with sustainable development”. The expected rapid growth in energy demand in the developing countries may be met in an environmentally sound way be employing most advanced fossil and renewable energy technologies available in the world market. Thus, meeting a part of the rising energy demand through renewable sources is likely to be a key element of sustainable energy strategy in the developing countries. It has been pointed out that the world’s commercial energy system will be replaced at least twice by the year 2100. This offers opportunities for the developed countries to opt for renewable energy systems in step with the normal timing of the corresponding investments. Table 1. World Primary Commercial Energy Consumption (BP, 1996) Region Consumption, (million toe) Increase, 1985-95 1985 1990 1995 (%) Asia excluding Japan 924.0 1219.6 1591.1 72.2 Total Europe 1656.2 1739.3 1725.2 4.2 Japan 362.7 428.3 490.2 35.2 USA 1739.0 1930.7 2069.4 19.0 ASEAN (5) 84.4 135.9 201.2 138.4 World 694.1 7855.2 8135.8 17.1
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Scenarios for future global energy use have developed by different international organizations, for example WEC/IIASA (1995), IPCC (1996) and Shell International Petroleum Company (1995). In most of these, renewable energy plays an increasingly important role in meeting the rising energy demand in order to mitigate environmental impacts of energy use. Thus, according to a renewable energy intensive global energy supply scenario (Johansson et al, 1993), up to 58% of total global electricity generated in the year 2025 would be accounted by renewable energy (hydro -18%, biomass - 18% and other renewables - 22%). According to a scenario of “rapidly changing world with stabilizing policies” of the US EPA (1990), primary biomass, hydroelectricity and other primary renewables are expected to account for 39.6% of global primary energy supplies in the year 2025. Although no energy scenario can be taken as accurate prediction of the future, the above scenarios suggest that renewable energy is expected to account for a very significant fraction of energy supplies in the not-too-distant future.
Status of Renewable Energy Technologies in Asia Solar thermal: The solar thermal technologies that are of interest in Asia are solar hot water systems, solar dryers and solar cookers. Many countries in the region have developed domestic solar water heaters (DSWHs) and sell them commercially, while even Australian, European and American models are also available in a few countries. The DSWHs are usually the thermosyphon type with a collector area of about 2m2 and a storage tank of about 200 litres. Some countries have a strong programme in this technology with government aided incentives and other financial aids promoting the growth of this technology. In India, solar collectors of about 0.29 million m2 of collector area have been installed. There are around 61 units of solar dryers and 10,000 units of solar desalination systems. By the end of 1996, 55 small manufacturers of solar cookers have sold around 422,000 units. An Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Power Plant (140 MW) with a Solar Power Generating System of 35 MW is in the inception stage of development in Rajasthan (MNES,96-97). Fiscal incentives like exemption of customs duty, central sales tax and depreciation under income tax are provided, while the monetary incentive of Rs 1000 per m2 of collector area is also given. It is, therefore, interesting to note that about 250,000 m2 of collector area has been for industrial systems, while only about 40,000 m2 of collector area was in the domestic sector (Mathur, 1996). South Korea has an ambitious programme on RETs and thirty two projects have been taken up by the government during 1989 - 1995 with a budget of about 3.2 billion Won for solar thermal applications; this resulted in indigenously developed solar water heaters of which 26,700 units have been installed so far (Song, 1996). In China, commercialization of domestic solar water heaters have gone a long way with more than 100 small factories involved with a production capacity of more than 1 million m2 of collector area per year. It is estimated that the total installed collector area is more than 5 million m2 at present (Luguang and Li, 1996). Though the government of China initiated the development and propogation of solar cookers during the early seventies, much could not be achieved until recently. China now has around 140,000 units of solar cookers in operation. In Nepal, the commercial production and marketing of flat plate solar collectors for domestic water heating is becoming a mature industry with more than fourty manufacturers in the field. The installed capacity of DSWHs is estimated to be around 30,000 liters. Government organisations and many NGO's are also active in the dissemination of the technology (WECS, 1995).
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In Vietnam, around 40 DSWHs have been installed on an experimental basis. The cost per meter square of collector area is US$ 130. Photovoltaics: The role of photovoltaics generated electricity for various applications ranging from water pumping, domestic supply, street lighting, telecommunication networks and navigational aids has increased tremendously over the last few years as the cost of the module has dropped dramatically making it competitive with conventional systems in some locations. The success of this technology in Asia is even more remarkable due to the fact that most homes are still not connected to the national grids. South Korea spent about 16.2% of its funds for renewable energy for photovoltaics related projects totaling about 35 until 1995 of which more than 60% were from private sources. These efforts have culminated in the development of solar cell/module indigenously and a 100 kWp system has been installed at Hodo island, which is now in commercial operation. Many other demonstration systems have also been commissioned during the last few years, namely, street lights, stand alone home systems, emergency telephone systems along expressways, etc. (Song, 1996). In China, the research and development in photovoltaic technology started in 1958. The twelve production lines in the country have a total capacity of about 5.5 MWp and produces annually about 1 MW capacity modules of which about a third is exported. China now has around 55,000 SHS. PV power is used for water pumping, microwave relay, railway signal and PV home electric systems for lighting and TV. Many ambitious programmes are being envisaged for the rural communities in Inner Mongolia and Tibet. The application of solar photovoltaic power in Nepal has been largely to specific sectors such as communication repeater stations (about 16 locations with a total capacity of 200 kW), water pumping stations (for demonstration) and village power systems (three systems of total capacity 130 kW). The current installed capacity of the country is 800 Wp (WECS, 1995). There is considerable interest in this technology with three manufacturers currently involved in the assembly of imported PV components. The Pulimarang Pilot Project which has electrified a rural mountainous village (50 SHS) in west Nepal has paved the way for more such projects in the future. PV has already been considered as a commercial technology in the Philippines. PV modules are imported while other components (BOS) are manufactured locally. The cost of a SHS (75 Wp) is about US$ 1,040. In Cambodia, the government is placing greater emphasis on rural development and has created favorable conditions by providing low import duties and taxes on components and equipments. International aid agencies and other organisations have supported installation of PV systems in hospitals, while solar lighting systems have also been installed in the capital city (Jona, 1996). Bangladesh have considerable opportunities for renewable energy applications as 85% of the consumers do not have access to electricity. The total installed capacity at present is about 100 kW in applications ranging from lanterns to hospitals. A pilot project of total capacity 62 kWp has been initiated with French and European Community assistance to provide electricity services to about 1300 consumers, install battery charging stations and power rural clinics. Grameen Shakti, a non-profit company has been established by the Grameen Bank to promote renewable energy supplies in rural Bangladesh to create employment and income generation. It has initiated a solar home system of 20 demonstration units with 17Wp and 25 Wp modules. There are at least three local companies involved in the supply and marketing of PV products (Cabraal, 1996).
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Vietnam has completed a village electrification project, which was carried out by the Vietnam Women Union in collaboration with the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), USA. In this project, 200 homes were provided each with a 22 W solar home lighting kit with DC/DC couplers for portable radios and connections for DC black and white TV's. All the systems were sold to the customers, who pay a 20% down payment and a monthly repayment of about US$ 6. After a year of operation, the loan repayment has been about 98%. Training, technical and maintenance assistance to local technicians are provided, which is seen as vital for the success of the programme. The solar photovoltaic programme was initiated in India in 1975 and during the Eighth Five Year Plan, (1992 - 1997) PV programme has been allocated Rs 900 million (about 10% of the entire renewable energy budget). It has indigenously developed technology and production facilities. India is the second largest crystalline silicone manufacturer in the world with an annual manufacturing capacity of 8..5 MW. In India, there are total 50 companies involved in PV. The telecommunications sector of the government is the major user of PV with over 5.5 MW of purchases in 1995. Sri Lanka embarked on the promotion of photovoltaics for rural domestic use in 1980 and since then many private sector companies have operated with a varying degree of success. Australian and Sri Lankan governments funded a rural electrification project to provide PV systems to 1000 homes in Pansiyagama village in 1987; the systems were installed in 1991. An infrastructure project to install 74 large scale systems for rural hospitals consisting of lighting, water pumping, refrigeration, etc was also funded in 1993 (Gunaratne, 1994). There are now 4,500 SHS in use in Sri Lanka as of 1996. Most of PV projects in Thailand are independently conducted in governmental organizations. The main users with substantial PV installations are: DEDP, Provincial Electric Authority (PEA), EGAT, Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT), Public Works Department (PWD), Ministry of Education (ME), and Ministry of Public Health (MPH).TOT has already powered more than 50 microwave repeaters with about 100 kW modules. ME has introduced 20 kW PV modules for remote primary schools. In 1992, DEDP and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) initiated a joint research project of a 4kW PV system at Koh Yao Yai Island. 147 and 500 households participate during the two phases of the project. More than 400 sites totaling about 580 kW of PV water pumping systems have been installed. Currently the total capacity of PV installation amounts to about 2025 KW. Photovoltaics has been used for the supply of electricity in Laos since 1981. Currently, there are 32 stations for microwave repeaters, 63 stations for radio telephone, many solar homes and vaccine refrigerators (Nhoybouakong, 1996). In Malaysia, 50 villages are planned to be electrified by 1996-1997; the total installed capacity will be 400 kWp. In Indonesia, about 20,000 SHS have been installed through different projects. The Government of Indonesia has launched a project called “Fifty Megawatt Peak Photovoltaic Rural Electrification in Indonesia”. The objective of this project is to provide electricity to one million households within ten years. Mini and Micro-hydropower: Hydropower is an established source of electricity; currently it accounts for about 20% of electricity generation worldwide. In the developing countries, only a small fraction of the total hydropower potential has been developed so far. However, large hydropower plants using
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dams are known to have a number of undesirable impacts on the environment. In this paper, only mini and micro-hydro power plants have been further considered. In China, small hydropower (< 1 MW) has been growing at rates in the range 7-13% per year over the past 20 years. In 1993, there were over 60,000 installations with a total capacity of 17,000 MW (Luguang and Li, 1996). In India, mini / micro-hydropower capacity installed by the end of December 1995 is estimated to be 138 MW (Mathur, 1996) The total number of turbines installed in micro-hydropower plants in Nepal has been reported to be 933 with a total installed capacity of 8.7 MW (WECS, 1996). The technical potential of small and micro-hydropower (< 10 MW) in Vietnam has been estimated to be about 1800 MW; of this 61.4 MW has been harnessed so far. Development of micro hydro power in Nepal is quite favourable because of the unique hills, scattered settlements and more than 6,000 rivers that criss-cross the country. Nepal has a total of 933 units of micro-hydro turbines with an installed capacity of 9 MW, the majority of which are used for agro-processing. The total number of micro-hydro power units installed for producing electricity is 311 with a capacity of around 2.7 MW. There are 11 water turbine manufacturers in the kingdom. Depending on the specific site, the cost per kilowatt varies between US$ 1,200 to 1,600. Malaysia has 22 mini-hydro plants of capacity ranging from 25-600 kW and plans to build 19 more. A total capacity of about 5 MW micro-hydro power has been installed in Indonesia so far. In Vietnam, 3000 family sized hydro turbine generator set of 1 KW or less have been installed. Biomass: In the field of biomass utilization, improved cooking stoves (ICS) programs have been initiated in most countries of Asia. The programs have been undertaken in China, where 129 million stoves were installed by early 1992 (Smith et al., 1993) and India, where about 30 million stoves were installed by the end of 1995-96 (ESCAP ‘96). In Sri Lanka, it is claimed that more than 5% of the households have received improved stoves. Biomass briquetting is now an established technology with local manufacturing capability in a number of Asian countries, e.g. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, India, Thailand, Bangladesh and Malaysia. The largest number of briquetting machines appear to be operating in China where the total number of briquetting machines currently installed in about 600. The biggest briquetting plant is in Malaysia. Another established biomass energy technology in Asia is gasification. The biggest gasifier program has been undertaken in India where about 17,000 power gasifiers corresponding to a capacity of 24 MW gasifiers were installed by the end of 1995-96. In China, the total number of installed gasifier sets is about 800 at present. Networks of producer gas supply has been reported to exist in Shandong and Hubei provinces of China. The gasifiers use agricultural and forest residues and one gasifier can supply 100 households with gas for cooking and space heating. Attempts to introduce gasifiers after the oil crisis of 1973 appears to have been mostly given up in some countries, e.g. Thailand and Philippines. Biogas production is well established in China and India. In China, there are about 550 million household digesters and 2,360 biogas stations. The number of family size biogas digesters in India is about 2.4 million. Significant renewed efforts to introduce biogas digesters of
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improved design are being undertaken in some countries, notably Nepal and Bangladesh. Wind Energy: Production of wind-generated electricity has risen from practically zero in the early 1980s to more than 10 Twh per year in 1996, a commodity worth nearly US$ 500 million. The total generation from wind is expected to reach 20 Twh by the year 2000. The total generating capacity topped 6,000 MW worldwide with Germany in the lead. In Asia, India has the highest installed capacity of 820 MW followed by China with 70 MW (Gipe,1997). The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has installed 7 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 192.35 KW. This includes a 150 kW wind turbine-generator unit that has been installed recently to gain experience with relatively large units. Wind resource assessment in the Philippines started in June, 1995and a 10 KW pilot project has been commissioned in March, 1996. Wind is still an unharnessed resource in Nepal. The few studies that have been conducted have indicated some potential in Nepal. Kagbeni and surrounding area in Mustang is considered to a favourable site with a potential of 200 MW generating 500 Gwh of energy. Two 10 KW wind turbines installed in Kagbeni was damaged only after 2 months of commissioning. Works are already under way to install a 100-150 KW turbine in the same site (WECS, 1995). In Malaysia, the first wind turbine-generator unit of capacity 150 KW was installed in 1995. Geothermal: The Philippines have now become the world’s second largest producer of geothermally generated electricity with a total installed capacity of 1191 MWe from the five fields. The potential power generation from geothermal is estimated to be between 3000-4000 MWe in the Philippines. . Proven geothermal reserves of 754 MWe exists in nine other sites. Contracts have recently been let to private investors for developing Luzon, Leyte, Negros and Mindanao with a total capacity of 754 MWe by 1998. The total installed capacity by 1996 should be approximately 1400 MWe and by 1998 it is anticipated to be 1945 MWe (Huttrer, 1996). China has more than 2700 thermal springs. However, to date, most of the geothermal applications has been for space heating, agribusiness, aquaculture and medical purposes. Since 1977, a few moderate to high temperature wells have been used for generating power. This number is growing at 12% annually and continuation of this trend is planned. Estimates of the geothermal potential are 100 MWe in South Tibet, 570 MWe in West Yunnan, 170 MWe in western Sichuan. The largest power plant complex in China is at Yangbaijian, Tibet Autonomous Region with a total capacity of 25.18 MWe (Hutter, 1996). By the mid of 1994, Indonesia had an installed capacity of 144 MWe. By the year 2000, plans are to achieve a total installed capacity of 2000 MWe by building 740 MWe on Java, 20 MWe on Sulawesi and 10 MWe of “mini-geo”. Until recently more than 90 natural hot springs have been registered in Thailand. Half of this number is scattered in northern part of the country. (Jivacate, 1996). A 300 kWe binary cycle turbogenerator using hot water from two existing wells at a natural hot spring at Fang has generated over 6.5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity since 1989.
Concluding Remarks The energy consumption in the developing countries of Asia is rising rapidly. It is likely that environmental considerations will constrain the access to fossil fuels in the future. As a result, a
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part of the increasing energy demand is likely to be met by renewable energy sources. In fact, use of renewable energy has already started rapidly in some Asian countries. For example, the installed wind power capacity has increased fourfold to 820 MW in India during last two years. Increasing concern about climate change is likely to further boost the prospect of renewable energy in the Asian countries. Acknowledgement - Support provided by the Renewable Energy Technologies in Asia: A Regional Research and Dissemination Programmme funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in carrying out this work is acknowledged.
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