Corporate entities with facilities in Asia are increasingly interested in procuring renewable power to meet sustainability targets, hedge against power price volatility, and add resiliency to their power supply. However, restrictions within the transitional power markets found in many Asian countries present barriers to such Direct Power Purchase Agreements (DPPAs).

Liability risk is a key climate risk affecting financial stability. Litigation trends reveal that liability risk arises in three broad ways: (i) rights-based action, (ii) compensation claims, and (iii) increased regulatory action. Within Asia, litigants use their legal rights to object to environmental permits issued to energy projects. Clean energy projects are not immune. Litigants have objected to project location for wind and waste-to-energy plants on the grounds of impacts to environment and livelihood.

Wind and solar are undergoing a global revolution with rapidly increasing installations driven by a range of technical, economic, regulatory, and institutional drivers. Recent work under the USAID, US-APEC Technical Assistance to Advance Regional Integration (US-ATAARI) project, found that countries throughout Asia are setting ambitious clean energy targets but for many countries, progress towards those targets is not keeping up.

The presentation highlighted the key trends and nuances in the financing of renewable energy projects across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East region. The presentation will provide details on various structures (park and non-park based), procurement strategy and other enablers to promote the development of renewable energy in these regions and will also include alternative emerging avenues of funding available for utility-scale renewable energy projects.

Most Solar Home Systems available in the market are low power solutions typically up to 100 watts, that can run lights, fans, and a small TV. Cygni has pioneered the development of 48V DC System, which goes beyond the traditional solar home systems, and that can power appliances up to 500 watts. It can run not only domestic appliances but also productive use appliances like water pumps, dryers, mixer/grinders, rice polishers/huskers, water dispensers, and Freezers/Refrigerators. The ownership of this equipment is either individual or community-based.

Around 80% of the households in Bangladesh use solid fuels for cooking. Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) affects 132 million people and contributes to 107,000 deaths each year. For women and children, it’s a grave health hazard. The World Bank in partnership with Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) launched an Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) program in Bangladesh. The improved cookstoves emit 90% less carbon monoxide and use half as much firewood as a traditional cookstove, thus effectively reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and indoor air pollution significantly.

Leaving no one behind is a core theme for the energy access sector and relates directly to the potential for energy access programs to inclusively address rural poverty. This presentation discussed key insights from detailed analysis of at-scale energy access programs in India and Nepal from Poor People’s Energy Outlook (PPEO) 2018. It also highlighted contrasting approaches to program design and propose a set of metrics to assess inclusiveness by gender, remoteness, and poverty.

While development literature often discusses the critical importance of electricity access and clean cooking to improve economic and social well-being, there has been little rigorous evidence of the specific nature and magnitude of these benefits. This presentation drew on impact evaluations from the Asia-Pacific region to explore the demonstrated impacts of energy access on income, education, women’s empowerment, inequality, and poverty alleviation in real-life settings.

As of 2018, India claims to have achieved 100% electrification across all states. This does not necessarily translate to the continued supply of power for all and calls for more reliable sources of energy. However, this will result in a shift of consumer demand to grid-connected devices and systems. Therefore, we see the need for loans with larger ticket sizes; from the $50 solar lantern, to the $200 home system and $ 10,000 microgrid for neighborhoods.

Apart from the lack of access to the electrical grid, rural communities in the Philippines pay much more for electricity than almost anywhere in Southeast Asia. While other options are available, rural communities have less access to solar-powered solutions because of distribution, financing, and maintenance gaps. Greenlight Planet and ASHI’s collaboration provides a success story for how green lending by microfinance institutions can help their clients improve their quality of life through energy access.