Cambodia scores high marks for renewable energy

Published: 29-May-13 08:56AM

PHNOM PENH (The Cambodia Herald) -- Cambodia's share of modern biomass in total energy consumption is among the highest in the world, according to a report released Tuesday by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency.

The report also found that growth in Cambodia's dependence on renewable energy excluding traditional biomass and hydropower was among the fastest in the world between 1990 and 2010.

Traditional biomass includes wood fuel, agricultural by-products and animal dung used for cooking, heating and lighting. These sources of energy are both unsustainable and unsafe, with household air pollution killing almost 4 million people a year, mainly women and children.

By contrast, modern biomass is safer and produced sustainably from solid wastes and residues from agriculture and forestry with less damage to biodiversity and forests. Examples include briquettes made from hay and coconut shells.

The Global Tracking Framework released Tuesday follows a global initiative last year to achieve universal access to electricity and safe household fuels by 2030.

As part of the Sustainable Energy for All initiative, public and private organizations along with civil society have set a goal of doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix from 18 percent in 2010 to 36 percent by 2030.

UNPRECEDENTED CHALLENGE

Demand continues to outpace supply of electricity," World Bank Vice President Rachel Kyte said in a statement released in Vienna, where the report was launched. She added that electricity needed to be not only affordable but also generated in a more sustainable way and used more efficiently. To rise to this challenge to meet peoples basic needs and to do so sustainably clearly requires a scale of effort we have never seen before,  Kyte said.

The report found that 73.3 percent of Cambodia's total final energy consumption came from renewable energy in 2010. Of this, 57.6 percent came from traditional biomass, 15.6 percent from modern biomass and 0.1 percent from hydropower.

Cambodia's share of modern biomass in its total energy mix was more than four times the world average of 3.7 percent. It was also the highest rate in Asia after Sri Lanka (20.4 percent). Other developing countries with higher rates than Cambodia were confined to Latin America, where the average modern biomass share of total energy was 11.5 percent, and sub-Saharan Africa, where the average share was 8.5 percent. Among the developed economies, only Estonia, Finland and Sweden relied on modern biomass more than Cambodia.

The report also found that Sweden, Finland and Brazil had achieved the highest shares of renewable energy excluding traditional biomass and hydropower. In these countries, the ratios were around 25 percent to 30 percent of the total energy mix.

Between  1990 and 2010, compound annual growth rates in renewable energy excluding traditional biomass and hydropower were highest in Cambodia, China and Myanmar at more than 10 percent. Growth rates for these forms of renewable energy were also relatively high in Italy, Germany and Poland.

The report found that fossil fuels accounted for 79 percent of the world's energy consumption in 2010 with nuclear energy accounting for almost 3.0 percent. The remaining 18 percent was mainly traditional biomass (9.6 percent), modern biomass (3.7 percent) and hydropower (3.1 percent). Liquid biofuels, wind, solar, biogas, geothermal, waste and marine energy each accounted for less than 1.0 percent of total consumption.
 
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