The Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2015 brought together energy professionals for the tenth time in Manila, the Philippines, to hear presentations by more than 200 speakers and share best practices relating to clean energy policy and regulatory frameworks, technology development and applications, and business models and finance.
The event was hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and organized by ADB, US Agency for International Development (USAID), World Energy Council (WEC) and Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO).
19 June 2015: The Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2015 brought together energy professionals for the tenth time in Manila, the Philippines, to hear presentations by more than 200 speakers and share best practices relating to clean energy policy and regulatory frameworks, technology development and applications, and business models and finance. The event was hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and organized by ADB, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Energy Council (WEC) and the Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO).
Addressing the opening plenary, Bindu Lohani, ADB Vice President of Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development, said key development objectives for the Bank in Asia and the Pacific are reaching across borders to strengthen energy security, tapping into clean energy resources and reshaping the energy sector.
The objectives of ACEF 2015 were outlined as: facilitating knowledge-sharing among clean energy practitioners in Asia; highlighting innovative approaches to packaging and scaling up clean energy initiatives; and taking stock of the progress in advancing the clean energy agenda in Asia.
The one-week event, taking place from 15-19 June, included a pre-forum, running from 15-16 June, which comprised a Solar Energy Forum, an Energy for All Investor Forum and ‘Deep Dive Workshops.’ The main Forum, taking place from 17-19 June, featured four plenary sessions, a knowledge networking session, the World Energy Leaders’ Summit (WELS) and 18 ‘Thematic Track Sessions’ held under six themes: energy efficiency; renewable energy; energy access; policy and regulation; finance; and technology.
During the closing plenary, the track session Chairs presented key “take-aways”, including: the need to focus on increasing access to energy efficiency; the dependence of renewable energy technologies’ ability to attract a wide range of customers on grid parity; and the potential role of climate change in providing “a political imperative to cut through the various technical, institutional and policy barriers” to scale up clean energy access.
The Deep Dive Workshops, organized by a number of ACEF partner organizations, explored, inter alia: hybrid renewable mini-grids; financing next-generation transport solutions for Asia; renewable energy grid integration; and innovations and technologies in energy storage.
Organized twice a year by the WEC, the WELS, held from 17-18 June, convened an invitation-only roundtable with approximately 50 ministers and government officials, and representatives of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), the finance and energy sectors, and WEC to discuss issues including: transforming urban spaces through smart innovation, Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) dynamics, and emerging risks and implications for infrastructure of the move to a resilient energy economy.
ACEF 2015 also featured a presentation tracking the ten years’ history of the Forum, published as a video on the conference website. [ADB Event Webpage] [ACEF 2015 Website] [ACEF 2015 Agenda] [ACEF 10 Years Video] [ACEF 2015 Daily Digests]