Water-based energy generation systems such floating solar photovoltaics (PV) offer great opportunities for the clean energy transition in Asia. This session included deliberations on how to scale up floating solar PV technologies supported through favorable policies and delivered at competitive prices, while minimizing environmental and social impacts.

As populations continue to grow rapidly across Asia, it is important to discuss how to improve the sustainability of irrigation while also improving overall agriculture production, in order to meet growing demand. Presenters in this session focused on solar-based and grid powered irrigation and will highlight energy-saving mechanisms for groundwater pumping and water transmission, including efficient water use for irrigation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that nearly 91% of the world’s population lives in places where air quality exceeds WHO guideline limits, leading to serious health issues and in some cases deaths. Presenters in this session highlighted the range of social, environmental, health and safety and climate change benefits that new urban energy systems can offer to urban communities.

The buildings sector is responsible for more than one-third of global final energy consumption. Presenters in this session highlighted the essential role of heating and cooling in the energy profile of cities and discussed technologies, systems, and strategies for moving toward low-carbon space-conditioning of cities.

The mobility of city residents and goods in Asia today is largely dependent on petroleum fuels that power road vehicles and other public transportation systems. Presenters in this session explored the potential for sustainable urban mobility, and discussed a range of technological innovations, policy and regulatory support, attractive business models and financial structuring that can create an enabling environment for e-mobility.

Cities require reliable energy for efficient water supply, wastewater treatment, solid waste management, housing, logistics, and other essential functions. Presenters in this session shared forward-thinking views, industry insights and concrete examples of how utilities can promote the integration of renewable energy and energy efficiency into urban planning.

For the first time in 2019, ACEF is organizing a track that will highlight leading-edge research into new and innovative clean energy technologies and systems. This track will focus on identifying the market trends and technologies that are driving the clean energy revolution, their fundamental drivers and the outlook for the future.

This track will draw on the experience of project developers, entrepreneurs, governments and investors from across Asia. It will also draw on the experience of ADB and other development partners in identifying new niches and areas where catalytic finance can make a difference—through the support of new technologies, business models, and financing tools and mechanisms.

This track will highlight efforts to improve the quality of life and hasten economic growth in rural areas by increasing access to clean and modern energy services. The track will also cover efforts to improve financial inclusion for energy access through microfinance.

This track will focus on the multiple connections between water and energy, including the use of water in energy production systems such as hydropower, thermal power, off-shore wind power, floating solar PV and biofuels, as well as the use of energy in the provision of water and sanitation services.

This track will highlight approaches and solutions that make cities more climate-resilient and livable by incorporating more flexible, low-carbon, clean energy systems, and approaches into urban development.

Topics will include, but are not limited to, integration of smart design and renewable energy into the built urban environment, alternatives to petroleum-based public and private transportation, urban microgrids, and urban planning and energy integration that can offer to cities and urban communities a range of social, environmental, and climate change benefits.

The “economies of scale” paradigm that guided development of existing electricity systems, refineries and transportation systems was based on a rational technical and economic framework. Comparisons between digital economies and asset heavy-infrastructure often oversimplify the rate of change possible in energy systems.