Agree to create and jointly chair a new workstream of activities

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei Darussalam and the United States have agreed to create and jointly chair a new workstream of activities on renewable energy power generation to promote and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies in the countries of the East Asia Summit (EAS), the US Department of Energy stated in its website.

This was agreed by US Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman and Yang Berhormat Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Hj Umar, Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister's Office, during the official visit of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam to the United States of America.

This work will be advanced by the US Department of Energy and its laboratories, and Brunei's Energy Department at the Prime Minister's Office with its newly-established Brunei National Energy Research Institute with all EAS countries encouraged to participate and contribute.

This effort responds to the call by US President Barack Obama, His Majesty and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia in November 2012 to "build upon efforts underway in APEC and Asean to bring concrete, impactful progress in addressing energy poverty and energy access issues in the region" through the new US-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Energy Partnership (USACEP).

Projects proposed include:
(-) A public-private dialogue on eliminating policy barriers to renewable energy investment that will hold workshops to identify barriers to overcome. and will bring together potential partners and financing to explore projects;

(-) Dissemination of information needed to make investment decisions: (a) results of solar power technology testing at Brunei's new demonstration facility combined with information from DOE research on performance in different environments, (b) mapping for renewable energy resources for areas of Asean, and (c) making available the resources of the Clean Energy Solutions Center to build capacity and to dissolve barriers to improve access to information; and,

(-) Research on climate change impacts on hydropower production, a particularly important resource for the Asean region, and capacity building on sustainable hydropower development.