Climate Change and the Shift to Cleaner Energy Push Southeast Asia to Finally Start Sharing Power

Picture: AP/Vincent Thian

In an article by AP News, Aniruddha Ghosal and Victoria Milko report the Southeast Asian nations’ plan to switch to clean energy to combat climate change through an agreement for electricity trade. The plan reinvigorates the 20-year-old plan for power sharing among the countries.

Cross-border power purchases accounted for just 2.7% of the region’s capacity in 2017, according to the Global Interconnection Journal. But those were between two countries, such as Thailand and Laos. Now, more countries are looking at power sharing as a way to wean their economies off coal and other fossil fuels. Vietnam would like a regional grid so it could sell clean energy, such as from offshore wind, to its neighbors while the Malaysian province of Sarawak is looking to sell its hydropower to neighboring Indonesia.

The plan for a regional grid between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was conceived two decades ago, but progress has been stalled by various problems including technical barriers and political mistrust.