Renewable energy meet in Sabah to focus on workable solutions

KOTA KINABALU: Community-based solutions and cost-effective reliable models for generating renewable electricity are among the features of a regional assembly in Sabah that will do its part in creating a sustainable energy-secure future for the planet.

The five-day Southeast Asia Renewable Energy People’s Assembly (SEAREPA) that starts on Oct 29 at the Rainforest Discovery Centre in Sandakan will also explore an array of renewable energy technologies and methodologies.  SEAREPA coordinator Gabriel S. Wynn said the event aimed to build strategic partnerships between renewable energy players in Southeast Asia, South Asia and the United States, and would include non-profit organisations, for-profit enterprises and governments.

“The assembly will showcase innovative approaches of renewable energy pioneers, address issues affecting communities impacted by large-scale energy projects and galvanise investment in clean energy. It also aims to influence policy by integrating decentralised clean energy projects into development plans.  “This is an open space forum where stories, struggles and solutions surrounding power generation can be heard. The demand for energy in Southeast Asia is placing severe pressure on natural resources and is displacing rural communities as demand is largely met through coal plants and large-scale hydro dams,” Wynn said in a statement.

About 100 people are expected at SEAREPA, with confirmations from groups in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos, including strong participation from the Bornean states of Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan.   Joining them are representatives from India and the United States. Among them are the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar, micro-hydro practitioners IBEKA from Indonesia, the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute of Vietnam, the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy and the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation (AIDFI) from the Philippines.

Wynn said distributed renewable energy projects had demonstrated cost-effective, equitable, reliable and environmentally conscious models for generating power and that, at this point, it was a matter of scaling them up. — BERNAMA

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