New Plans
The Sultanate is also studying ways to help meet renewable energy targets agreed on within ASEAN. The bloc set a target of renewable energy accounting for 15% of collective energy supply by 2015, and Brunei Darussalam has so far very little renewable generation, consisting mainly of a small solar power plant that produces about 1.7 GWh a year. The country completely lacks hydropower, a main source of alternative energy.
In its March 2014 “Energy White Paper”, the Energy Department at the Prime Minister’s Office (EDPMO) set very ambitious targets of 124 GWh of renewable power generation by 2017 and 954 GWh by 2035. To meet this target the EDPMO is planning to introduce a feed-in tariff in order to encourage investment in renewable energy systems. The policy should help to spur development of distributed solar generation within the country. The government is planning to take a leading role in identifying land for utility-scale solar projects. The government is also preparing to develop a waste-to-energy project using municipal solid waste. The project is expected to generate 10-15 MW of power.