On the 8th of January 2025, PSI spoke to Wilfred Boerrigter, the Head of Operations for Mandalay Yoma, a private company developing solar mini grids in rural areas of Myanmar.
Myanmar has been experiencing conflict between its military and numerous ethnic groups seeking autonomy since its independence in 1948. The situation escalated in 2021 when the military overthrew the democratically elected government in a coup, sparking widespread protests, armed resistance and a severe humanitarian crisis. Ethnic states like Rakhaing and Shan face ongoing conflict which is compounded by displacements and conflict over resources.
"Having to supply your electricity with expensive diesel generators makes it difficult for anyone to have stability. Everybody is struggling and complaining - not only households but companies, too."
Since his arrival in Myanmar in 2021, Boerrigter has had to address the numerous challenges of working in a conflict zone in his work with renewable energy. In this interview, we discuss his perspective on renewables as a tool for resilience-building in rural communities, the challenges of operating in an active conflict zone and the steps taken to address them.
PSI: Could you share your role and responsibilities at Mandalay Yoma?
Boerrigter: I am the Head of Operations at Mandalay Yoma energy. We own 34 off-grid solar-powered mini-grids in eight different regions in Myanmar, we have plants in Rakhaing, Shan, Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway, Ayeyarwady, Tanintharyi and Bago (see Figure 1). The sites are a part of a project started by the World Bank in 2016, combined with loans provided to the government of Myanmar, to develop off-grid solar-powered mini-grids in rural areas. Due to the internal conflict, we can only run 20 of these 34 sites at the moment. I am trying to keep these sites operational for as long as we can, just to make sure that we can provide electricity to these rural villages.
Figure 1. Map of Myanmar’s states and conflict map of the country.
Areas controlled by government armed forces are highlighted in red. This conflict map was last updated on the 3rd of December 2024. For a live update conflict map, click here.
How do Mandalay Yoma’s renewable energy projects help address the security risks tied to climate change, and could you share an example?
In Myanmar, the current state of energy supply is not enough to meet the demand.
In Yangon, the biggest city in the country, we have just been told that the government is reverting to rolling load-shedding where we get eight hours of power a day. This means four hours during the day and four hours during the night. If you look at security, this means that there is no street lighting and residents rely on diesel generators, installing their own solar panels or waiting out the dark. Having to supply your electricity with expensive diesel generators makes it difficult for anyone to have stability. Everybody is struggling and complaining - not only households but companies, too.
As in rural areas, here in Yangon people reverted back to using fire as their main way to cook their meals. We see women in front of their houses cooking their rice and in rural areas many live in small sheds so if one of these sheds catches fire, this has a big impact on the rest of the community because the fire spreads.
In addition using firewood also causes mudslides because a lot of soil stabilising plants are cut away to be burnt. We see that once we provide electricity, schools can open again, clinics can increase the number of people that they help by 50% and people feel safer as streetlights run regularly.
What are some ways that renewables can reduce energy poverty in Myanmar?
Without the mini-grids, rural villages get two, four or maybe eight hours of electricity a day if they are lucky. Now, we provide anything between 15 to 24 hours a day of electricity, so that is a big difference. They are getting more electricity than we get here in Yangon. Energy poverty is still going on, I think 24% of the people in Myanmar do not have access to electricity, so there is still a lot of work to be done.
Would you say that your work with mini-grids helps improve the resilience of communities living in high conflict areas?
Yes. As long as we can provide electricity, and the communication towers are working, this gives them access to the rest of the world via the internet and calls. With our mini-grids, they also get better visibility at night, heat to cook their food and better healthcare. The people here are just surviving, so any electricity that you provide helps them to improve their livelihoods.
What kind of hurdles have you encountered when running renewable energy projects in conflict zones in Myanmar?
I see six major challenges to the work that we do: The first challenge that we experience is the issue of access to our sites. Almost half are now in conflict areas that I cannot reach, and this means we cannot maintain the sites or collect payments either.
Second, being seen as impartial to the conflict is a challenge. If we have a site and there are two different parties to the conflict that are in the vicinity, there is chance that you will bump into them and will need to explain what you are doing. This is a challenge because we want to guarantee the safety of our staff and of their families.
Thirdly, it is difficult to get spare parts since the country is not an open economy. We need to get a license from the government to obtain parts which can take a long time. You need to cooperate with the ministries, and they need to support and like you if you want to get the products you need.
Fourth, there is also the problem of damages linked to the conflict. Even if we can get to a mini-grid relatively safely and conduct repairs, who is going to make sure that it does not happen again or that the materials are being stolen?
Fifth, in the last six to eight months, there has been a brain-drain following the activation of the conscription law [author’s note: conscription is the compulsory enrolment of personnel for the armed forces] here in Myanmar. Many engineers have fled the country, and this makes it tough to find highly skilled people that want to work under the current circumstances related to rural electrification, especially when working for solar power companies in Yangon is more competitive in terms of working conditions.
Sixth, we have contracts with the villages where they are asking for 24/7 electricity, but we cannot provide this every time. We see that when we are providing a stable flow of electricity in a stable region, the livelihoods of these villagers is increasing, and as a result this means that they can afford to buy more appliances that use more electricity and reduces the number of hours we can provide electricity.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give to renewable energy developers and operators working in conflict zones worldwide to enhance climate security?
I think the most important thing is to try to keep an open dialogue with the parties that are involved as much as you can. There are other mini-grid operators here in Myanmar that are facing the same problems as us and we can work together to continue providing our services and find alternative revenue streams. If your revenue stream meets your costs, then you can allow yourself to invest more in the people and find the partnerships that will really help you.
We are also looking for partnerships with local NGOs that want to get access to rural villages because we have a strong network that gives us privileged access to rural areas where people are the most vulnerable. If we can provide access through our network and they can get better education, for example, then people are benefiting from stable electricity and education. The issue is that it takes a long time before you get access to the funds that are required to finance these projects, and Myanmar is quite closed-off, so not many NGOs have access to the country to provide funding, and not many people know about the struggles we experience here.
Would providing electricity with an international NGO not be a better model?
I believe that providing electricity via the public-private partnership we have with our mini-grids is, in general, better. As a private company, we are focused on making sure we can provide electricity. With an NGO, there are other forces at play that influence the decision-making. We are here to stay and are driven to improve the performance of our operations.
About this series:
In recent years, PSI has conducted interviews with climate security practitioners. Find below an overview of interviews conducted between 2023 and 2024.
Jimena Leiva Roesch: In our interview with Jimena Leiva Roesch, the Director of global initiatives for the International Peace Institute (IPI) and Head of the Climate Peace and Sustainable Development team, we learned about her work to develop sustainable climate financing and support the most vulnerable states. She emphasises the difficulties that result from the lack of discussion space for these topics in the UN environment and reiterates that climate change should have a space in the UN Security Council. She also describes recent developments in this field and her motivations to work on these topics.
Catherine Wong: Conflict affected countries face substantial difficulties in accessing climate finance. In our interview with Catherine Wong, Global Team Leader for Climate and Security Risk at the UNDP, we found that climate financing mechanisms need to be designed differently to prioritize conflict-affected and fragile contexts. However, she also stressed that recognition of climate security challenges is growing and that there is much more demand for UNDP support.
Christina Wegelein: In recent years, the inclusion of security consequences into climate considerations has broken into the mainstream, as is apparent by its increasing presence at climate summits. In our interview with Christina Wegelein, Head of Germany’s Climate Security Unit, we found that the growth of climate security is the result of consistent advocacy efforts by a wide range of actors. However, its advancement is as important on the ground as in Dubai’s conference centres.
Christophe Hodder: Somalia has in recent years been ravaged by the effects of a multi-year drought driving food insecurity and conflict across the Horn of Africa and pushing millions to migrate to urban settings in search of food and safety. PSI recently sat down with the Climate and Environment Advisor for the UN in Somalia, Christophe Hodder. We asked him about his work and the environmental challenges that Somalia will face in the coming years.