World Bank: High Oil Prices Cause ASEAN to Look at Renewable Energy Sources

Rising oil prices have prompted ASEAN members to take a serious look at renewable energy sources, despite concerns over the cost of developing such resources, reports Agence France Presse. Renewable energy was among the key topics raised at a forum of energy ministers of ASEAN and Pacific Rim countries held in the Philippine capital this month to discuss ways of dealing with the high price of imported fuel.

The Philippines has one of the most ambitious plans. It wants to double its capacity for renewable energy from the present level of 4,500 megawatts or 37 percent of the total to 9,000 megawatts or 60 percent of the total by 2013. Energy Secretary Vicente Perez said this would involve wider use of geothermal energy, with the Philippines eventually overtaking the United States as the world's biggest producer of such energy. The Philippines also aims to be the biggest producer of wind power in Southeast Asia by the end of the decade and a leading producer of solar cells, while further tapping energy from bio-mass or organic waste materials like rice husks and sugar cane scraps.

Guillermo Balce, outgoing head of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Centre for Energy, said a study he had conducted found that ASEAN's demand for renewable energy was estimated at 68 million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) in 2005 or about 1.8 percent of total energy demand. By 2020, demand for renewable energy was expected to rise to only 74 MTOE or 12 percent of the total. In contrast, demand for oil is expected to shoot up from 166 MTOE in 2005 to 292 MTOE in 2020. Even under ASEAN's energy plans, investment in renewable sources from 2001 to 2020 will only amount to about $15.44 billion or barely two percent of all ASEAN investment in the power sector, the centre said. In contrast, investment in natural gas will hit 85 billion dollars or about 43 percent of the total in the same period, its figures showed.