KATHMANDU: The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom South Asia held a thought-provoking discussion on sustainable energy solutions titled ‘Energy Transition and Energy Security in South Asia’, on December 15. The esteemed panellists for the discussion were Lydia Powell, Head at the Centre for Resources Management, Observer Research Foundation, India; Shafiqul Alam, Lead Energy Analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Bangladesh; and Hitendra Dev Shakya, Former Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority, Nepal. Arpita Nepal, Founder and Director of Research at Samriddhi Foundation, Nepal, moderated the discussion.
The webinar began with a brief introduction regarding the event by Tenzin Paljor, Programme and Communications Officer at FNF South Asia. To set the tone of the discussion an introductory video related to the theme of the event was played thereafter. The video mainly focused on the dynamic landscape of South Asia where the winds of change are blowing through the energy sector, fueled by a global shift towards energy chains and how these countries are now working to redefine their energy policies and infrastructures.
A video message from Torsten Herbst, Member of the German Bundestag representing the Free Democratic Party, was then played. He currently chairs the Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure and concurrently serves as a deputy member of the Budget Committee. Herbst mentioned that though he could only contribute from a German perspective, what is clear is that we all have common goals in the light of energy transformation. He stated that all countries wanted to achieve climate neutrality and the issue was about access to affordable energy. He emphasized the need for poorer countries to have a secure and reliable energy supply. He also mentioned how the Russia-Ukraine conflict had made Germany aware of the necessity to diversify energy sources and not rely on only one source. Herbst stressed the need to increase the share of renewable energy, and to look for different sources because that makes it easier when you have a crisis or shortcoming from one supplier for one source of energy.
The keynote speaker for the webinar was Maximilian Luz Reinhart of the FNF, an economist with a dedicated focus on environmental and energy economics. Reinhart spoke about the key drivers that we have to consider when talking about energy, climate protection and also about geopolitical tensions. He mentioned the ideas that he had gained at the COP28 that was recently held in Dubai through talks with different experts in the area of energy. He shared that during talks at the COP28, stakeholders saw that renewables give a great chance to diversify energy. He also mentioned that we tend to only talk about solar and wind energy when it comes to renewables but other forms of energy are also being looked into. However, he shared that one thing that he fears which is not talked about enough is the dominance of certain actors in the production of photovoltaic and wind turbines. He stated it is not enough to diversify only concerning energy sources, but also concerning where you get the production from. The final aspect that he raised concern about was cyber security. He said that if you focus on renewable energy, these networks are always very smart technology efficient and it makes it very easy to tamper with them. This, said Reinhart, need not be a threat only from state players but also from terror organisations and criminals. He mentioned that he was very hopeful that with global cooperation between democracies in the world, we might actually get to a certain standard.
The panel discussion started with Arpita Nepal, the moderator, mentioning that the debate we are having in South Asia right now is very timely as Bhutan, Nepal and India are seeking to meet almost 50% of their energy requirements through renewables by 2030. She highlighted that Bangladesh has gone one step further and set an aim to reduce its carbon emissions by 22% before 2030. She also mentioned that there is an energy transition that is happening in South Asia quite silently.
The moderator further mentioned that at the International Energy Agency's World Energy Investment Summit in 2023, the investment in renewables was targeted to be $1.7 trillion this year and it is still being evaluated on whether those investment demands have been met. However, she shared that at the other end of the spectrum, the Economist has come out with a very interesting perspective that the world is talking about green transition and climate commitments but people are still exploiting some natural resources for the storage part. Hence, she said she feels there is always that dichotomy within this debate on whether it is neutral. She then introduced the panellists as the discussions went underway.
Lydia Powell began her discussion by highlighting that India had been focused on shifting towards renewable energy but after the Ukraine crisis, there has been a real emphasis on coal-based power generation. She highlighted that India does not import a significant quantity of electricity from South Asia but it does import a substantial amount of natural gas from other nations. As there has been a price increase in natural gas due to the Ukraine crisis, India has shifted its focus on generating power by utilising domestically available coal, she said, adding that in fact, India has even emphasized on import of coal. She also mentioned that paradoxically, climate-related heat waves have increased power demand in India, especially during summer, and this has perversely shifted the emphasis back to coal. Powell shared the emphasis has gone back to energy security and India doesn't want to depend on imported energy sources. It wants to be self-reliant and increase domestic production of resources.
Meanwhile, Shafiqul Alam provided a snapshot of the energy supply pattern in Bangladesh. He mentioned that considering the whole energy sector then about 50% is supplied by natural gas and 25% to 30% by biomass. The remaining energy comes from liquid fuel, he said, adding coal has very limited contribution to Bangladesh’s overall energy system. He also said contribution of renewable is meagre in the whole energy value chain. Alam shared that after 2008 Bangladesh went through a transition. Previously, more than 90% of the power system operated on natural gas, however, due to dwindling natural local gas supply it had to quickly ramp up the power system capacity through other means. He stressed that the Ukraine crisis has made it clear that the current power system model that Bangladesh is following is very fragile, and highly import-dependent. That's why the interest within the government has increased, he said, so the government currently has a plan to harness 40% green energy for power generation, but that does not necessarily mean all will be renewable energy, as per the recently improved and approved integrated energy and power system master plan. He mentioned there is another plan which states that by 2041 it should be 40% renewable energy. He shared the government has also appointed a Danish firm to conduct a detailed feasibility study for a 500-megawatt offshore wind power plant.
Hitendra Dev Shakya started his discussion on a positive note by mentioning that Nepal does not have any non-renewable fossil fuel energy source. He said the sources of energy are fuel wood and agro-farm residues which account for about two-thirds of the demand, adding it is about the forest being sustainably utilised. He also shared that the forest cover in Nepal is increasing and is now 45% of the total land mass. The other source, he mentioned was the hydropower potential. He stated the country has 2,800 megawatts capacity operating right now but that generated only 11 terawatt hours, adding that it indicates that energy is getting spilt. He said that was basically because of restricted transmission access and cross-border market access. Shakya shared that Nepal has tremendous hydropower potential. He also mentioned that claims for solar power are very high. He revealed that a study had shown solar to have about 30,000 megawatt hour potential. However, to have solar, he stated that the country needs to have parallel storage, which could be resolved by using batteries. He also spoke about geothermal energy which has not been investigated yet.
