How to secure a sustainable energy future

Renewable technologies offer huge potential

With energy prices expected to remain volatile for the foreseeable future, energy providers have an unprecedented window of opportunity to leverage technological innovation and explore investment for growth in renewables. Many renewable technologies that were considered high risk previously are fast showing the potential to become mainstream and attracting investment interest.

This can be an inflection point for emerging green technologies such as floating solar and floating wind. Increasing demand for new sources of green energy will drive research and spark technology advancements, bringing down costs. This, together with the fact that intermittent renewable energy can be used to produce green hydrogen, means that emerging green technologies have considerable potential to be a game changer for the energy transition. Green hydrogen has also emerged as a carbon-free fuel for transportation, a source of heat in homes, businesses and industrial processes as well as a source of dispatchable power to back up intermittent renewables.

The commitment to reduce carbon emissions is uneven and the maturity of clean energy adoption differs vastly across countries. Government policies and intervention have been key and will remain so, with many governments leveraging carbon pricing as the common denominator to incentivize decarbonization. Consumer response has been a constraint in the decarbonization journey as well. Not all consumers can install rooftop solar panels and reduce their grid consumption. It will take time for consumers to adopt new technologies, such as electric vehicles, and addressing these issues will require capital investment.

For investors and developers of renewable projects, the short-term investment climate in renewables is attractive. However, barriers such as legacy systems, complex permitting processes, integration difficulties, uncompetitive or challenging financing environments in a context of rising interest rates as well as issues relating to power storage and trade between markets remain.

Accelerated grid investments needed

The International Energy Agency indicated that it could take a 50% rise in global grid spending over the next decade to meet long-term sustainability goals.1 Significant investment in nearly seven million kilometers of transmission lines around the world will be crucial in supporting the continued transportation of renewable energy.2

Given the extent of grid development needed across the globe, regulators should reconsider the regulatory and financing environment so that outdated grid systems do not become a major hurdle in the race to net zero.

Some markets are already working on solutions to streamline these processes. For example, hydrogen is likely to play a key role in the UK’s efforts to decarbonize its power system by 2050, with green hydrogen supporting grid flexibility by providing storage solutions for excess generation. Coupling electrolytic hydrogen production with storage helps integrate hydrogen further into the power system by balancing the grid when generation from renewables is higher or lower than demand.

In the US, large power users such as municipalities, industrial companies and universities are looking to become “energy islands” by turning hyper-local electricity or electric vehicle networks into distributed energy resources. 

In Singapore, proactive steps have been taken to facilitate solar energy deployment while allowing power grid stability. Beyond investments in storage and solar forecasting and initiatives to promote growth of Singapore’s solar photovoltaic industry, the country has eased regulations for solar installations to connect to the national grid. This is expected to support a future where solar energy forms a more significant portion of Singapore’s energy mix.

Decarbonizing Southeast Asia will require greater cooperation and grid investments between countries to facilitate exports from areas with surplus renewable energy resources to countries with an electricity shortfall. Cross-border investments require careful consideration to achieve a fair balance of investments, job creation and value creation for the long-term benefit of all Southeast Asian countries.