The ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP), a jointly implemented programme between the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), organised a fruitful Focus Group Discussion (FGD) for the study “Biogas Development in ASEAN Electricity Sector” on 17 March 2022.
The FGD was conducted virtually and attracted more than 130 participants representing different key stakeholders in biogas, including government agencies, development banks, energy consumer groups, industry associations, project developers, advocacy groups, academia, and think tanks from 10 ASEAN Member States (AMS) and other nations outside the region including Japan, China, Germany and other European countries.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Asdirhym Bin Abdul Rasib – Renewable Energy Sub Sector Network (RE-SSN) chair, Dr. Nuki Agya Utama – Executive Director of ACE, and Mr. Sergey Makarov, Principal Advisor of AGEP, emphasised the importance of biogas in increasing electricity production, diversifying the regional energy mix, and accelerating the clean energy transition in ASEAN. Further biogas deployment will significantly contribute to the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Phase II aspirational target of 23% renewable energy share in total primary energy supply by 2025; however, its capacity has not yet met its full potential.
Among the keynote speakers was Dr. Takeshi Takama, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainability & Resilience (su-re.co) and consultant of AGEP who presented the preliminary results of the study. Su-re.co currently works as a think-tank in climate change and energy projects, consulting government and international organisations. The think tank participates in a number of EU-funded research consortia inclduing the LANMARC project which assesses decarbonisation from biogas. Dr. Takama outlined the potential for the biogas development, where solid and waste-water management and agriculture are the top-ranked potential sectors to implement biogas. Regarding the technology, anaerobic digestion is regarded as the most common method, while gasification process is still in its infancy in some countries. In terms of existing barriers, economic and technological difficulties are considered the most influential aspects in the acceleration of biogas, while environmental and social have less impact. The study also indicated that policy and regulations are the major barriers hindering biogas growth. This insight has inferred the urgent need to mainstream the biogas technology through financial funds and implement a robust policy for the biogas plants in the AMS. According to the survey responses, policy implementation and financial resources were seen as critical factors.
Following the keynote speeches, participants took part in a series of discussion sessions, moderated by su-re.co. The first one focused on identifying the barriers and opportunities for biogas development in ASEAN countries, while the second one aimed at feasible technology and feedstock for biogas-to-electricity. During the discussion sessions, questions were given using the online platform to address the barriers and opportunities of biogas in the ASEAN power sector from non-regulatory and regulatory aspects. Participants were then divided into three breakout rooms to share their opinions on the mentioned topics. Different perspectives from key stakeholders were received, providing insightful information regarding the current status, as well as technological, economic, political and regulatory, social and environmental issues in biogas development.
In his closing remarks, Mr. Septia Buntara Supendi, Manager of REE Department at ACE highlighted the importance of global collaboration to achieve the regional RE targets and emphasized that the opinions and ideas exchanged during the FGDs were beneficial to the study itself and the bioenergy development in ASEAN. He hoped the study would provide a reference point to the governments and policy-makers, and more discussions on bioenergy development would be conducted in the future.