Regional ties key to unleashing power of renewables

Despite holding 'immense renewables potential', clean energy makes up a 'very low' (6.1%) proportion of total primary energy supply (TPES) in the countries of the Hindu Kush Himalayas, with hydropower singled out as being 'hugely underexploited', according to a major new assessment report.
The report came from eight-nation regional intergovernmental body the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) which was launched on Friday during the Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Week in Bangkok, reports UNB.
Of 882 gigawatts total hydropower potential identified in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the vast majority of that potential (635 Gigawatts) is from the waters of the transboundary rivers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.
Just 49% of this potential is currently tapped. Non-hydro clean energy potential (solar and wind) in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, meanwhile, stands at 3 Terawatts.
While the total combined renewable energy targets of the countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya amount to 1.7 Terawatts (as per their Nationally Determined Contributions), the renewable energy potential within the HKH region alone is over >3.5 Terawatts.
While Bhutan and Nepal generate 100% of their electricity from renewables, fossil fuels overwhelmingly dominate other Hindu Kush Himalayan countries' electricity generation: representing 98% in Bangladesh, 77% in India, 76% in Pakistan's, 67% in China, and 51% in Myanmar.
Biofuels and waste make up an 'alarmingly high' proportion of total primary energy supply (TPES) in four HKH countries, meanwhile -?contributing two-thirds of Nepal's; half of Myanmar's; and one quarter of Bhutan and Pakistan's energy supply. This reflects rural communities' continued reliance on traditional materials (wood, crop residues, livestock dung) for cooking and heating, despite the impacts on air quality and human health.
The new study Together we have more power: status, challenges, and the potential for regional renewable energy cooperation in the Hindu Kush Himalaya?examines existing energy sources, the share of renewable sources in the overall energy mix, analyses climatic and non-climatic risks to the energy sector and explores potential for renewable energy cooperation.
The study warns that climate change is significantly impacting the energy sector, particularly hydropower production, through increased water variability, extreme weather events, and infrastructure damage.
Changing hydrological regimes resulting in streamflow variations and seasonal shifts affect output, it finds, while glacial lake outburst floods and other extreme events pose 'major risks' to existing and planned hydropower projects -?with close to two-thirds of current and planned hydropower vulnerable to potential glacier floods alone - and stresses the need to integrate disaster risk mitigation strategies into renewables projects.