Energy security’s holy grail
“Developing nations harnessing energy from sources they can afford have said that global conventions must be equitable in making major sources of polluting greenhouse gases take more responsibility.
Daily Tribune“Developing nations harnessing energy from sources they can afford have said that global conventions must be equitable in making major sources of polluting greenhouse gases take more responsibility.
The search for the holy grail of energy security, which should be a consistent yet environment-friendly fuel to generate electricity, has consumed most nations.
Fossil fuels, however, remain the predominant sources of electricity and it is expected to remain that way despite the aggressive push for a shift to renewable energy.
Developing nations harnessing energy from sources they can afford have said that global conventions must be equitable in making major sources of polluting greenhouse gases take more responsibility.
The top four coal-power countries — China, India, the United States and Japan — were responsible for over three-quarters or 79 percent of the world’s coal-fired electricity in 2023, according to energy think tank Ember.
According to the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions scenario, the world needs to bring the share of coal in the power mix down to 14 percent by 2030.
Fossil fuels, mostly imported, are also becoming a liability because they push up consumer bills each time that trouble erupts in some part of the world.
Recent events exposed the vulnerability of consumers to price surges. DAILY TRIBUNE, in a series of reports, exposed how power suppliers sought to maneuver fixed-price power supply agreements to allow adjustments as the prices of fuel spiked mostly due to geopolitical concerns.
A recent Court of Appeals ruling, a rare legal development, overturned the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in granting the plea for an increase in charges.
New energy projects in the Philippines are mostly carbon-based despite the recent Ember figures showing Indonesia and the Philippines not letting up on coal use as coal’s percentage of the total generation mix reached 61.9 percent recently, now generating nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of electricity in the two Southeast Asian countries, indicating an increase in coal reliance.
Indonesia overtook Poland in terms of coal’s share of generation in 2023, having reached 61.8 percent in 2023. Indonesia had overtaken China’s coal share in 2022. The Philippines rose from 59.1-percent coal in 2022 to 61.9 percent in 2023, overtaking both China and Poland in 2023 for the first time.
With coal powering most of the electricity in Indonesia and the Philippines, compared to less than half in ASEAN, renewables are not keeping up with rising power demand. Solar and wind only generated 0.3 percent and 3.2 percent of total electricity production in 2023 in Indonesia and the Philippines, respectively, falling behind the ASEAN average of 4.4 percent and regional leader Viet Nam at 13 percent.
Even in China and Poland, which have historically relied on coal, strong growth in solar and wind power is continuously reducing coal’s share. In China, electricity demand rose by 6.9 percent, and nearly half of the demand rise was met by solar and wind.
Meanwhile, Poland saw a drop in electricity demand by 5 percent, but wind and solar power surged by 26 percent, resulting in a sharp decrease in coal generation (-17 percent).
Indonesia and the Philippines are the world’s top 20 coal generators
In Indonesia, electricity demand rose by 5.1 percent in 2023, two-thirds of which was met by coal (67 percent), with the remaining third met mostly by gas (31 percent).
Ember said that as solar and wind growth lag, increasing reliance on coal has made Indonesia the fifth largest coal power-generating country in the world, up from eleventh place in 2015.
As for the Philippines, coal generation grew much higher than the rise in electricity demand (9.7 percent vs. 4.6 percent).
The country’s coal generation ranks 17th in the world, but it placed 8th in terms of generation shares based on Ember’s computations.
It just goes to show that the double whammy of fossil fuel addiction and import dependence have been among the highest in the region and the scourge of Filipinos in contending with high electricity costs.
The solution, thus, remains the development of indigenous sources whether conventional or renewable.