Renewables are Increasing in Asia Pacific, So are Fossil-Fuel Plants

New research from IHS Markit revealed that Australia, Japan, and Vietnam are leading the move to renewable energy in the Asia Pacific. Coal and gas power plants are also being installed rapidly as part of the energy mix across the country.

According to the IHS Markit Renewable Additions Index, the renewable power production pipeline has increased across the Asia Pacific. Around one third, or around 80 gigawatts (GW) of the energy projects are being installed, produce wind, solar, hydro and other renewable energy in the 16 main regional markets.

Australia is leading the ranking, with 89 per cent of its building capacity being wind, solar or biomass. Due to the vast offshore wind projects, Japan and South Korea are second and fourth in both countries. Additionally, Vietnam, which leads to emerging markets, takes the third position in the region. The government promotes feed-in tariffs to attract investors to invest in solar and wind energy.

On the other hand, only 6 per cent of Bangladesh’s power production is from non-hydro renewable sources, marginally ahead of Myanmar and Thailand respectively, which are 4 per cent and 3 per cent.

As reported by the vice president of global power and renewables at IHS Markit, Xizhou Zhou, the ranking demonstrates that a country’s ability to invest in clean energy is not affected by its income level. Renewables is achievable for any countries as the cost is getting more affordable.

China stands as the largest market for renewables due to its 58 per cent of onshore wind and 33 per cent of solar projects being installed. However, because of its substantial energy expansion agenda using coal and gas, China is ranked at number eight.

Meanwhile, other governments within the region have declared renewable energy goal, but other states, including China, Japan, and South Korea have been more dedicated to net-zero emissions.

IHS further reported that fossil-fuel generation projects remain in the Asia Pacific, with 192 GW of coal-fired plants and 65 GW of gas-fired power plants under construction. Together China and India make for 77 per cent of coal-fired power plants in the region. China, Thailand and Bangladesh are the most involved in new buildings for gas-fired power projects.Even though renewables is increasing rapidly in Asia, Zhou said many developing economies continue developing natural gas plants with 24-hour reliability to meet the steadily growing demand for basis loads. Developed nations appear to face less pressure as energy demand energy is much slower or has reached its peak. Then again, countries like Japan and South Korea still develop coal-fired facilities.