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Coal projected to be largest source of power in ASEAN by 2030
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Heavy equipment and trucks pass through a coal mining site in East Kalimantan. (Antara/Wahyu Putro A)
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ollowing increasing demand in recent years, coal is projected to overtake natural gas by 2030 to become the largest source of power in Southeast Asia.
The International Energy Agency has forecast a three-fold increase in coal-fueled power generation to 920 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2035 from only 255 TWh in 2013. As a result, the share of coal in total electricity generation is expected to increase to 48 percent.
“We see a shift toward more investment in high-efficiency coal. What is the reason for this? It is essentially because the background infrastructure costs for coal are lower,” Benjamin Sporton, the chief executive of World Coal Association (WCA), said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
(Read also: 5,000 MW mine-mouth plants to be offered at auction)
Sporton said the development of gas infrastructure, including pipes, ports and conversion facilities, was about five times more expensive compared to coal infrastructure.
“In fact, background infrastructure costs for building a gas plant in Asia are often higher than the costs of building the gas plant itself,” he said.
Hence, he said it was natural to see coal take over the crown from natural gas as the largest source of power in Southeast Asia by 2030. (bbn)
