Chaiyut Thipsuwanporn, senior vice president at Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), announced this week that the company’s food retail franchise CP Fresh Mart is joining the government’s campaign to reduce waste and will stop giving plastic bags to customers starting from January 1. “Moreover, since October we have been piloting a new project called ‘CP Fresh Mart Ma Kep’, aiming to teach the right way of separating household waste for recycling in the communities around our retail shops,” he said. “The pilot shops are Yenjit , Sathorn 11 and Sathorn Condo branches, where customers can bring in 50 pieces of recyclable waste and get 10 free eggs every Wednesday between 1-4 pm.” The project is being implemented in collaboration with GEEP, a Thai start-up with expertise in recycling and waste management. “The project has been well received by customers and we are planning to expand it to other branches in the near future,” he added. Furthermore, to prepare customers for next year’s no plastic bags policy, CP Fresh Mart has organised several campaigns since the beginning of the year including not giving out of plastic bags on Wednesdays, selling thermos bags at a special price, as well as buying plastic bottles and recyclable waste at selected branches in Bangkok and the surrounding area. “CPF is planning to stop using all plastic packaging by 2025 in Thailand, and by 2030 in other countries,” said Chaiyut.   Source：https://www.nationthailand.com/

Dasman Diabetes Institute (DDI) founded by Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, has inaugurated its GeoHealth Lab recently. During the inauguration, Dr. Duwairi mentioned that the Dasman Diabetes Institute is proud of driving a geohealth agenda to deal with diabetes in Kuwait and provide innovative solutions that focus on prevention and intervention. Dasman’s Geohealth Lab has built a comprehensive technical infrastructure that integrates health and administrative data with social, built and physical environmental data in support of spatial epidemiological research to understand and prevent Diabetes. This lab is the first focused Geohealth Research Hub in the region with capacity to apply spatial epidemiology and develop knowledge and understandings of the spatial drivers of diabetes in Kuwait. The lab is enabling the development of new methodologies to sustain effective public health and medical care interventions in Kuwait, which is part of the mission to serve the country and its population.   Source: https://news.kuwaittimes.net/

Addressing the summit, Energy Minister Barshaman Pun said that energy development is crucial for the country's economic development. "Nepal government is committed to attract foreign investment in the energy sector," he said. Minister Pun said that Nepal will generate 5000 megawatt electricity once some of the ongoing hydropower projects are completed in couple of years. "Meanwhile, Nepal's current electricity demand is only 1320 megawatt," he said. The minister said that Nepal's major electricity markets are India and Bangladesh. Around 70 experts from various countries are making their presentations during the summit. Independent Power Producers Association Nepal (IPPAN), the organizer, stated that eminent experts from Nepal, China, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Japan, the Netherlands, United States, Canada, and Norway are taking part during the summit. The event will be held on November 21 and 22 under the theme "Powering the Asian Century". Over 700 guests from various countries are expected to participate during the summit. IPPAN Chairperson Shailendra Guragain said that the experts are scheduled to deliver their deliberations on a number of topics including regional power trade, electricity market, regulation, and financing, sustainable development, execution and facilitation of the energy projects in the federal structure, foreign investment in hydropower and among others. "All the preparations for the summit are underway," he said. The summit is being organized under the patronage of Nepal government's Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation     Source：https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/two-day-energy-summit-kicks-off-in-capital/

Nine international banks and financial institutions are making an investment in what appears to be the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) in the hydropower sector. A financial agreement of US$ 453.2 million (approximately Rs 51.30 billion as per Friday’s exchange rate) between Nepal Water and Energy Development Company Private Limited (NWEDC) with nine international banks and financial institutions led by International Finance Corporation (IFC) for 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project was signed in Kathmandu on Friday. Representatives from IFC, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Export-Import bank of Korea (K-EXIM), Korea Development Bank (KDB), CDC Group PLC (CDC), Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), PROPARCO Development Financial Institution, and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) signed the agreement for the loan financing of Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project. Arranged by IFC, the loan agreements were signed to provide a total loan amount of $453.2 million for the project. Loans amounting to $161.3 million from IFC, $60 million from ADB, $39.6 million from AIIB, $100 million from K-EXIM, $30.8 million from KDB, $21.9 million from CDC, $15.4 million from FMO, $11 million from PROPARCO, and $13.2 million from OFID have been provided for the project. Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barshaman Pun said the project was a game changer as it served as an example of how the private companies could help Nepal expand its hydropower sector and attract the much needed FDI. He assured of the support, assistance, and coordination needed to expedite the process to meet the timeline set by project development agreement (PDA) for the financial closure. The hydropower project located in Rasuwa district will generate annual energy of 1,533 GWh from three power generating units of total installed capacity 216 MW. Total 38.75% of the annual capacity will be generated in dry season and the remaining 61.25% will be generated in wet season. The delivery point of such energy generated is the under-construction Trishuli-3B Hub substation in Nuwakot. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, in a video message, said it was one of the largest FDI projects of the country. “The project is important as additional 9 million people will benefit as the project comes into operation,” he said. The project includes 29.5m high dam in Trishuli River, 9.7 kilometer-long headrace tunnel, 292 meter-high vertical pressure tunnel and an underground powerhouse. The project site is located near the Kathmandu load center and can provide a firm power of 104 MW all round the year. The PDA of the project was signed between the government and the company on December 29, 2016. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) was signed between the company and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on January 28, 2018 based on the posted rate of NEA. Addressing the signing ceremony, Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada said the project was a pilot project for bigger projects. “The project needs to be taken as a trial project in order to build confidence for bigger projects,” he said, “We are working on creating investment friendly regulations and have been very clear about the PPA policy including PPA in US dollar terms.” He said that land and forest acquisitions have been made very simple. According to NWEDC, the construction of the project will commence after the approval of the Financing Agreements by Nepal Rastra Bank and after the fulfillment of other conditions in the signed Financing Agreement documents. The scheduled construction period of the project is 5 years. A joint venture of Korean companies – Daelim Industrial Co Ltd and Kyeryong Construction Industrial Co Ltd will carry out the main construction works.   Source：https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/financing-agreement-of-453-2-million-for-upper-trishuli-1-signed/

A draft law covering Spain’s approach to climate change and the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy is expected to reach Congress before the year is out. But the Ministry for Environmental Transition has already informed the country’s political parties of some of the key elements of this legislation. And among the proposals is a 2040 ban on the sale of all vehicles that use fossil fuels, whether they be powered by gasoline, diesel or natural gas. What’s more, in 2050 the government hopes to be working with local councils to prohibit the circulation of such vehicles, and is also proposing the obligatory installation of electric charging points in gas stations. Transportation in Spain – and in most of the European Union – is the straggler when it comes to the fight against climate change. While the use of renewable energy continues to grow in the power sector – with a realistic target of 100% of electricity coming from clean sources in the future – road transportation is not progressing at the same speed in the fight against climate change. Just over a quarter of all greenhouse gases emitted in Spain are from the transportation sector, and most of those come from the roads. Forecasts from the government suggest that if measures are not taken, these emissions will grow 15% from here to 2030. In the draft text presented on Tuesday, the 2040 ban on “passenger and light commercial vehicles with direct emissions of carbon dioxide” would also mean an end to the sale of hybrids, which also burn gasoline or diesel. This kind of veto has already been announced in other EU countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, which have also set a target date of 2040, and Denmark, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, which have set a date of 2030. The ministry’s proposal also includes measures that would see municipalities with more than 50,000 people have low-emission zones installed “no later than 2023.” The law, which also sets a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels) will have to be negotiated in Congress, and given that the Socialist Party (PSOE) is governing in a minority, the process may take a long time as the government seeks cross-party support. The PSOE and the left-wing anti-austerity party Podemos have already created a work group in Congress, and the rest of the political parties received the draft document several days ago. The ministry claims that its objectives are very ambitious and go further than what has been demanded by the European Commission (EC). Among the measures in the draft is a plan to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial process used to extract oil and gas from the ground by fracturing rock using pressurized liquid. What’s more, once the law comes into force the government will no longer issue new permissions for the prospecting and exploitation of hydrocarbons, neither on land nor at sea. Current licenses will not be valid from 2040 onward. The climate change law will be completed with the so-called Energy and Climate Plan, which Spain will have to present to Brussels in December. This plan will set out the energy sources that the country will count on over the next decade. For example, whether it will count on coal, nuclear or natural gas for its energy needs. This document is still being drawn up, but in the draft climate change law there are measures to encourage the use of renewables. Between 2020 and 2030, a total of 3,000 megawatts will have to be installed every year. Currently, the country counts on 48,000 megawatts, and in 2017 this clean technology generated 32% of all the electricity in Spain.     Source: El Pais https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/11/13/inenglish/1542118484_563478.html

Power Division has issued an official order to all the six power distribution utilities of the country, asking each of them to purchase rooftop solar power from at least 20 consumers within next three months under net metering system, reports UNB. The six distribution utilities are power Development Board (PDB), Rural Electrification Board (REB), Dhaka Power Distribution Company Ltd (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco), West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd. (WZPDC) and North West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (Nesco). According to official sources, the Power Division's renewable energy desk issued the order last week. "We have already received the Power Division order and started planning to implement it," WZPDC managing director Md Shafique Uddin told the news agency. He noted that now NWPDC will find out 20 potential consumers from within its command area in the next three months. On July 28, the Power Division unveiled "Net Metering Guideline 2018" in order to buy rooftop solar power from consumers. Under the proposed system, any consumer can set up rooftop solar system covering up to 70 per cent capacity of the sanctioned load and sell the additional or unconsumed solar power after meeting his/her demand through an exchange arrangement by a special meter. The idea is that the consumers will use their own solar power alongside the grid. But on holidays when solar power is not used, the consumers can sell it to the national grid. Even, on the working days, they can preserve their solar power to grid and sell it to his power supplying company or take it back for its own consumptions. After end of the month, bills will be adjusted on the basis of consumption and sale of solar power to the utilities and the consumer will get payment from the distribution company at bulk rate if his sale overruns the consumption. Unveiling this guideline, Power Secretary Dr Ahmed Kaikaus announced that each of the distribution companies must buy solar power from at least 20 consumers. It will be treated as a key target under their annual performance agreement (APA) signed with the ministry. Power Cell Director Md Abdur Rouf, who was involved in framing the guideline, said there is no lower limit of a consumer's solar capacity. But the upper limit of the capacity is three megawatt. He said the order on rooftop solar came as a follow-up of the Power Division's decision to buy rooftop solar power as part of its move to promote renewable energy across the country. Power Cell officials believe the government will be able to buy about 10-12 MW power from rooftop consumers as many large consumers like industries, apartment complex, shopping malls and hotels have already set up rooftop solar power plants for their own consumptions as part of the government policy.

Utility Iberdrola has announced a plan to expand its portfolio of renewable energy in Spain. The energy provider plans to expand its renewable energy portfolio by 52% from the current capacity by 2022 by investing up to 8 billion euros. Iberdrola will install an additional 3,000MW of wind and solar energy by 2022 and 10,000MW by 2030. The projects are expected to create 20,000 jobs. To date, the utility has up to 5,770MW of renewable energy capacity in Spain Recently, Iberdrola has filed proposals for the development of four renewable energy projects which will be integrated with energy storage technologies. The solar energy projects will add up to 250MW to the company's clean energy portfolio and will be developed in Castilla-La Mancha. This brings the total to over 2,200MW of renewables under construction or awaiting approval in Spain. Worldwide, Iberdrola's installed renewable capacity is over 30,300 MW, making its generation capability one of the cleanest in the energy sector.     Source：https://www.smart-energy.com/news/iberdrola-announces-8-billion-euros-clean-energy-plan/

With the prospects of power shortages in the coming time as well as concerns about transmission line and grid connection, solar rooftop panels could ease power demand, while contributing to sustainable development. VIR’s Phuong Thu reports on what makes rooftop solar panels shine in Vietnam. Vietnam will likely face a power shortage during 2020-2030 if electricity generation is not increased and there is not enough fuel (coal and gas) for generation. It is forecast that the demand for electricity will continue to grow at a high level until 2030. The power sector will need to ensure 265-278 billion kWh of output by 2020 and around 572-632 billion kWh by 2030. The growth rate in the 2016-2020 period will be 10.3-11.3 per cent per year and about 8-8.5 per cent between 2021 and 2030. Insufficient power supply could lead to a heavier reliance on imported fuel, especially in power generation, while the higher demand would also place greater pressure on power infrastructure, which might not be improved quickly enough due to lack of funding. In addition to these challenges, Vietnam could face greater environmental impacts from an increased demand and a higher proportion of fossil fuels, especially coal in the energy mix. With the country’s energy demand projected to increase by more than 10 per cent annually in the next five years, the government is moving forward to develop renewable energy sources to ensure energy security and address the growing power demand. Although the power market is witnessing a boom in solar power projects as local and foreign investors are racing to reap the benefits of the 9.35 US cent feed-in-tariff, which ends in June 2019, the power grid and transmission remain a concern. According to the latest data showing a total of 332 solar projects registered with the total capacity of 26,290MWp, including 121 projects with the total capacity of 7,234MWp that will begin to generate electricity by 2020 and 211 others (13,069MWp) are waiting for approval, these figures have far exceeded the revised Power Development Plan VII. Venu Nuguri, group senior vice president, ABB’s Power Grids Division in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, said at a recent forum that balancing variable power supply and demand has always been a challenge, but as the share of renewables in total generation in many countries is growing, this challenge is becoming more critical. Nguyen Duc Cuong, director of the National Load Dispatch Centre (A0), also pointed out that the southern central region is home to the brunt of the nation’s renewable energy sources, but local power grid conditions are not prepared to adopt this kind of energy. “It takes three years, on average, to build a power grid project, while a solar power project needs only one year to put in place. As a result, electric grid development cannot catch up with the proliferation of solar and wind power projects,” he explained. For especially, the transmission networks of the central province of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan are not developed enough. There are warnings that if too many solar power projects are plugged into the system in the region, they could cause a network overload. A0 will step in to tackle the situation through forcing the plants to reduce their power generation capacity to a suitable level. Thus, promoting rooftop solar power is one of the solutions to address the imminent shortage of power, as the solar market all over the globe works to make our mother earth a healthy and secure place to live. A solar rooftop panel only requires space and abundant sunlight to work efficiently, and batteries to store unused energy will cover cloudy days. Rooftop is going green Rooftop solar has never been more affordable for home and business owners and communities as it can help households reduce monthly electricity bills by half, contributing to protecting the environment. Experts from an EU consultant group shared the results of a four-month pilot project on rooftop solar power in the central city of Danang. Industrial zones (IZs) are good places to build solar panels because they have large rooftops and strong electrical connections already available. “The cost of solar power installation in Vietnam is lower than in countries such as the US,” Chad Laurent, expert of EU Energy Initiative Partnership Dialogue Facility’s consultants group, said. “There are favourable conditions for businesses to invest in solar power.” Citing statistics from the World Bank, Vo Quang Lam, deputy general director of Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), said that some 6,000MW of energy will be turned out in Ho Chi Minh City if the city develops rooftop solar power projects. With the huge potential of solar power, an EVN representative said that the group will launch a campaign to encourage residents and businesses to install solar panels at IZs and farms, as well as the rooftops of homes. Also, Lam said that EVN is in the process of asking power generators to boost solar panel installations, contributing to reducing pressure on the national power grid. In addition, he said that EVN is considering developing rooftop solar power in the northern provinces, despite there being fewer hours of sunlight than in the south. Ho Chi Minh City alone has seen over 748 rooftop solar power owners registering to sell their surplus electricity to Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation, with a combined capacity of 11.55MWp. It sets up the target to restructure power usage towards a higher rate of renewable energy to reach 1-1.74 per cent of the city’s total consumption and focusing on developing solar energy, particularly rooftop solar power. In Vietnam, IREX, a member of SolarBK, is one of the solar energy leaders in installations for large projects and for residential needs alike. The company’s strength is in the direct production of solar panels and components, such as PV modules and cells, made to international standards. To step up its game, SolarBK has invested in a new high-tech energy equipment complex in Phu My I Industrial Zone in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau as well as presented BigK – the first rooftop solar power system in Vietnam accompanied by electricity insurance and finance services by teaming up with Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam Insurance JSC (BIC); BIDV Insurance Corporation and team up with Germany-based Munich RE to get PV insurance and protect itself against manufacturer’s risk. These moves aim to encourage more people to use renewable energy in the future as the industry is still in its nascent stage. The Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) suggested the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to consider increasing the exemptions for power operation licence from 1 to 3MW to capture the benefits of investment in solar rooftop energy systems. Besides, many private developers have signed power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with EVN to deliver excess electricity from rooftop solar systems to EVN. They have also reported delays in payments under the net metering scheme. EVN has indicated to the VBF that the treatment of the value-added tax on PPA power sales between building owners and EVN caused barriers to paying for electricity supplied to EVN from rooftop solar systems and indicated that it is trying to resolve the matter. It also requested urgent attention from the Ministry of Finance and the MoIT to solve the issue and clarify when payments/credits will be made for electricity supplied.     Source: https://www.vir.com.vn/solar-rooftop-panels-ease-thirst-for-power-64945.html