The problem of waste management compounded with the push for renewable energy development is fostering growth of energy-from-waste market in southeast Asia.
Frost and Sullivan has made the observation in a report “Strategic Analysis of Biomass and Waste-to-Power Market in Southeast Asia”.
According to the report, the region is being pushed to develop such projects as the generation of solid waste is becoming disproportionately high compared with space available for their innocuous disposal.
In 2014, the market for biomass and energy from waste reported revenue of $1.12 billion. By 2019, this figure is expected to touch $1.85 billion.
The items of biomass that the study focused on included wood chips, fruit-stripped bunches, bagasse, municipal solid waste, and rice husk.
The report notes that the energy-from-waste market in the region is inadequately organized. The feedstock market shows seasonal fluctuations in price owing to the absence of a common mechanism to fix rates.
And in the absence of an organized approach, plantation owners often prefer to sell unused waste to highest bidders of the time than regularly selling it as feedstock for biomass projects.
However, in recent times, generation of power from renewable sources has become more lucrative particularly with governments offering financial support by way of feed-in tariff rates, Adwaith Visveswaran, a senior research analyst for energy and environment with Frost & Sullivan observes. “In addition, farmers and mill owners looking for alternative revenue streams are selling biomass feedstock, widening market scope,” he adds.
The report bats for the creation of partnerships between waste-to-energy producers and the feedstock provider community through equity sharing. It also advocates establishment of consortia of plantation owners and creation of price-setting mechanisms to overcome price shocks. Such measures would “accelerate the shift to biomass power generation”, the report notes.
“The entry of European vendors has intensified competition. Therefore, strategic partnerships will be crucial to ensure technology improvements and to enhance scale efficiencies in the southeast Asian biomass and waste-to-power market,” Adwaith adds.
Ajith Kumar S