According to new analysis by think-tank Ember, five major economies in Asia will see their solar power generation and installations grow exponentially over the next few years.
China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia will see an average annual growth rate of 22% over the decade, with China, India, and Japan adding the most capacity, while Indonesia and the Philippines will see the fastest growth.
China will be far ahead of the rest of Asia. China's current target is to install 1.2TW of solar and wind capacity by 2030. If the installed capacity of both energy sources maintains the same trend as in 2012-2021, then China can install up to 600GW of solar power capacity by 2030.
India will have the second largest production capacity in Asia by 2030 and one of the highest in the world. India is targeting 300GW of solar power, a six-fold increase from current levels. At the COP26 climate summit last November, India announced a target of 450GW of clean energy generation by 2030.
India added a record 14GW of solar capacity in the 12 months to March 2022, according to an analysis by Ember in April.
In addition, in order to reduce dependence on Chinese imports, the Indian government has been pushing domestic solar module and cell capacity to 40GW.
Third is Japan, a country that will surpass 100GW of solar capacity by the end of the century.
Of the five Asian countries, Indonesia has the lowest solar capacity at 180MW, but is expected to increase its installed capacity by 25 times by 2030 to reach its solar PV target of 4.6GW by 2030.
However, this target is not ambitious enough for Indonesia, which has the capacity to achieve a higher level of development.
In the past year, Indonesia has announced several large-scale projects aimed at exporting power generation to Singapore. Developer Sunseap plans to develop 7GW of solar PV, while ib vogt and Quantum Power Asia plan to build 3.5GW of solar PV plants.
The Philippines is another country with a growing interest in solar, with plans to add 18GW of solar PV by 2030 to reach the 10GW mark by 2025. The Philippines currently has 1,370MW of installed capacity, so if the above targets are achieved, its solar capacity will increase by a factor of 12.
Project developer Solar Philippines announced in August that it plans to build 4GW of "the world's largest solar project" in the Philippines.
