The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai will be remembered as unquestionably the world’s first mass celebration of the sun and the first clinching evidence of how close we are to solar power as a mainstream energy source. Now everybody will be rethinking. For the first time, people have realised that solar power isn’t merely a boutique idea, nor is it only as good as a candle is when power goes off at home. If solar power is good for a giant show like the Expo, it can be good for even larger applications too. And when perceptions change, governments will be prompted to act.
The 5.8 sq km Expo is fed by 4.6 Mw of on-site solar power, making it perhaps the largest single solar application demo in the world. The mile-long Expo Boulevard, the main access to the Expo site, has six giant funnel-shaped “Sun Valleys” that gather sunlight to illuminate its two underground levels where many of the commercial activities are located. When people come face to face with such a concrete evidence of what’s possible — the Expo site is also served by 34.3 Mw of wind power — their faith in alternative energy is bound to increase.
What the world needs — we certainly do in India — are more Expo-like showcases to remove doubts from people’s minds and make renewable energy part of governments’ mainstream policy agenda. Unless that happens, progress towards alternative energy will only be halting and desultory.
It’s clear that China’s mind is firmly set on solar, as on other renewables, with a goal of 20 GW of installed solar capacity by 2020, and it’s encouraging that other nations have begun to fall in step. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, aiming to increase grid-based solar generation from a likely 15 Mw at the end of this year to 1,000 Mw by 2013, could change India’s alternative energy landscape if the effort lasts and proves it’s not an accident. Thailand has announced plans for a 73 Mw solar power plant with assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Abu Dhabi has launched a solar plant, Shams 1, to produce 100 Mw of electricity, enough to serve 20,000 homes. South Korea, with 168 Mw of solar capacity already installed, has asked its power utilities to generate at least 2 per cent of their total capacity from renewable sources.
What’s needed now from Asia’s hesitant governments is a far greater policy commitment to developing solar power in particular and renewable energy in general. We need to do, for example, what the state of New York is seeking to do. The New York Solar Jobs and Development Act, currently under consideration, wants 5,000 Mw of solar capacity installed in the state by 2025 and will penalise the utilities if they fail to do so. If Asia’s nations could show similar determination, many believe the region could account for a quarter of the global solar capacity in five years.
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That’s why the news that ADB has decided to be the region’s solar power motivator is more than welcome. Motivation, prodding, and financial support are precisely what the region’s governments need to promote their solar ambitions, and ADB is in a perfect position to help.
Early this month, ADB called ministers of selected Asian countries, high-level public sector participants, key policy-makers, international solar facility manufacturers, industry associations, and knowledge institutes to a meeting at its headquarters in Manila and announced a solar energy initiative that aims to catalyse the generation of 3,000 Mw of solar power in the next three years. In that meeting, ADB proposed to put in $2.25 billion of its own money to support the initiative and hoped leverage an additional $6.75 billion from other, mainly private, investors.
What ADB intends to do is make available a range of projects, financing options and knowledge-sharing mechanisms that might attract private investors and banks. It also expects to raise $500 million from donor countries to “buy down” the high upfront capital costs of investing in solar energy. With such a help at hand, Asia seems destined for a brighter solar future.
Perhaps that’s why ADB should also direct its initiative to the technical side of solar power generation. We need to promote solar power, but we don’t want acres of solar panels gobble up our fields and hills like a virus. If, for example, a 20 Mw solar plant in South Korea needs an area the size of 93 soccer fields, we have a serious problem. Could solar panels be built into the very designs of buildings and factories? What should be the focus of Asia’s solar R & D? What are the needed reforms to attract more solar investments? What about pricing? As the solar mindset matures in Asia, these are the issues that ADB, as a regional institution, should help us address.