A Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure
Australia
The Great Southern Ocean
Olympic-Dam Darwin
Queensland-Darwin
Northwest Shelf
Timor Sea
Darwin-Sumbaya
Southeast Asia
Indonesia
Malaysia-Singapore
The Greater Mekong
The Phllippines
China
Southern China
Central China
Northern China
Offshore China
Japan
South Korea
Russia
Comparison Projects
"The Asian region is well endowed with clean energy sources but faces constraints in developing them."
"Infrastructure For a Seamless Asia,"
Asian Development Bank,
2009
"Interconnected grids lower needs for generating capacity by allowing peak demand in one area to be served in part by spare capacity in a neighbouring area where demand is not at its peak."
"Electric Power Grid Interconnections in the APEC Region,"
Asia-Pacific Energy Research Center,
2004
A Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure
There's never been a better time to re-engineer Asia's energy system.
Coal-fired power plants are getting old. The electricity transmission system needs upgrading. New supplies of natural gas are coming on line that need a route to market. The regional economy is becoming increasingly integrated. Climate change looms large.
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| A Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure could link Australia to China |
| Source: DESERTEC-Asia |
| Click here to enlarge image |
Energy market reforms that remove the deadweight costs of the status quo will encourage application of new technology. The result will be industrial reinvigoration, higher economic growth rates and improved living standards.
The challenge? Asia should treat its rising energy needs as a collective, multilateral concern in which the overarching goal is the 'greatest good for the greatest number.'
A flexible, robust and open regional energy transmission network would achieve this goal. It would last a century or more. It would be adaptable to tomorrow's energy sources (renewables) and tomorrow's fuels (like hydrogen).
Thinking short term, by contrast, could result in wasteful investment and stranded assets.
Several assumptions underpin the conceptual viability of a Pan-Asian Energy Infrastructure.
1. A continuing trend toward increasing cross-border trade
2. The need to turn over aging energy generating capacity while also creating new sources of supply.
3. The need for upgraded transmission infrastructure
4. The need to combat global warming.
All are largely self-evident.
Needed investment could be funded through universally-applied carbon pricing and removal of perverse subsidies. This is economic common sense.
When the net present costs of avoided climate change and environmental damage are then added in, a massive net present positive sum is generated.
China is a huge energy consumer. Australia is a clean energy powerhouse.
Developing and linking Australia's clean energy supply to China's clean energy demand will benefit not just Australia and China, but all the ASEAN countries that lie in between -- as well as Japan and South Korea.
The result: a virtuous circle of economic development, industrial reinvigoration, greater social inclusion through deepened electrification and longer human life-spans through greater environmental protection and remediation.
“One of the most important infrastructure projects that we need is a whole new electricity grid.”
Barack Obama,
President,
United States
"No scientific breakthroughs are needed to achieve the reality of the Energy SuperGrid."
"National Energy Supergrid Workshop Report,"
US Department of Energy,
2002
"The challenge now is to build efficient and seamless connections across Asia and to the rest of the world to foment a more competitive, prosperous, and integrated region."
"Infrastructure For a Seamless Asia,"
Asian Development Bank,
2009
"(Cross-border) extension of power grids can benefit the environment by allowing forms of power generation with lower atmospheric emissions to replace types of generation with higher emissions."
"Electric Power Grid Interconnections in the APEC Region," Asia-Pacific Energy Research Center, 2004
"The benefits of upgrading and extending Asia’s infrastructure networks are substantial, and that all countries in the region would benefit."
"Infrastructure For a Seamless Asia,"
Asian Development Bank,
2009
" Investment now being made in energy-supply infrastructure will lock in technology for decades, especially in power generation. The next ten years will be crucial, as the pace of expansion in energy-supply infrastructure is expected to be particularly rapid. "
"World Energy Outlook,"
International Energy Agency,
2007