Clean Energy Consultant(s)

Regenerating, Recycling, and Renewables in Cambodia: what is needed?

Context and Objectives of the Policy Analysis

EnergyLab works to accelerate the transition to clean energy in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. We undertake energy policy analysis, and support capacity building and stakeholder engagement to help ensure a rapid, fair and orderly energy transition.

Cambodia adopted ambitious renewable energy targets that include 2GW of solar by 2030. This will necessitate some integration of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) within the grid. Running in parallel, is the Kingdom’s ambitious electric mobility target of 80,000 electric vehicles on the road over the same time period.

While increased use of renewable energy (RE) technologies will result in significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, they can also create a new waste stream that needs to be anticipated and managed. To address this, recycling will need to be a focus within the RE sector, and should be proactively integrated into RE policies. There are also potential opportunities to create new industries and jobs through a proactive approach to managing RE technologies.

EnergyLab aims to understand how much Cambodia needs to invest into recycling measures, when, and what actionable policies and strategies can be adopted to mitigate future environmental and health risks. EnergyLab also wants to capture the potential opportunities from a new recycling industry.

The analysis will focus on two industries: Solar PV generation - including both domestic applications and large-scale solar farms, and electric vehicles. As part of this, the analysis should look at energy storage, particularly batteries in EVs and in utility-scale applications.