Renewable Energy Microgrids Workshop
Astana Expo 2017, 10 August – 12 August 2017
The August Company was invited to speak at the Renewable Energy Microgrids workshop at Astana EXPO 2017. The two-day workshop was conducted at the Singapore Pavilion of the exhibition which is dedicated to the topic of “Future of Energy” and covered the different aspects of the microgrids industry including business, finance and policy. Through her three sessions, Katarina Uherova Hasbani, a specialist in regulatory affairs and renewable energy, shared her views on the industry scope of Central Asia, developments in off-grid power industry and government policies and regulations that impact the microgrids.
Renewable Energy Industry in Central Asia
This session gave the participants an overview of the untapped renewable energy potential in Central Asia. Irrespective of its technical potential for renewable energy, including solar, wind and small hydro, the practical deployment remains limited in the region, with the exception of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. These two countries have high shares of renewable energy in their total final energy consumption (TFEC, 28% and 40% respectively because of their hydropower production), others (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) have less than 3% renewable energy shares. The session explored potential areas for improving renewables deployment.
Supporting microgrids industry: Introduction to organisations such as Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) and Supportive Initiatives Such as SE4ALL
While commercial business models in the micro-grids industry are now emerging in developed and developing countries, the industry still remains young. The market development needs the support of the industry associations and donors-based initiatives to flourish. This session focused on how organizations such as the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) are contributing to the industry development. It also highlighted the available funding support provided by international donors and development banks to advance the microgrids development.
Policy and Regulatory Framework for Microgrids
The International Renewable Energy Agency has stated that nearly 60% of additional energy generation required to achieve universal electricity access by 2030 is estimated to come from off-grid installations (stand-alone and mini-grids). This session outlined the essential aspects of government policy and regulation around deployment of renewable energy based micro-grids. It also highlighted the key role played by government policies and regulations in accelerating the deployment across regions.
The two-day workshop concluded with presentations by country representatives on their observations followed by a group discussion. Some of the other speakers at the event included Mark Netto from 75 Ventures, Sagar Gubbi from Ecoforge Advisors and Pavel Popov from Homsol. The workshop was facilitated by Sujay Malve from Canopy Power.
If you are interested in a workshop on scaling clean and renewable energy technology or off-grid power systems, contact us here