The sunny side of Asia

Solar generation in seven Asian countries avoided approximately US$34 billion in fossil fuel costs in the first half of 2022. The report highlights rapid capacity growth in China, India, and Viet Nam, while noting that solar capacity across five key Asian economies is expected to grow by an average of 22% annually until 2030. However, the transition faces hurdles including grid instability in Viet Nam, high installation costs in Japan and South Korea, and policy bottlenecks in the Philippines and Thailand.

• Solar power generation in China, India, Japan, South Korea, Viet Nam, the Philippines, and Thailand avoided approximately US$34 billion in potential fossil fuel costs from January to June 2022, representing 9% of the total fossil fuel costs incurred by these countries during that period.
• Solar capacity is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 22% until 2030 across five key Asian economies: China, India, the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.
• China is the primary driver of regional savings and growth, avoiding approximately US$21 billion in fossil fuel imports in the first half of 2022. Its solar capacity installations are expected to reach 1,200 GW by 2030.
• Rapid solar deployment in Viet Nam between 2018 and 2021 led to significant grid challenges, with curtailment rates reaching 30-40% in some areas because grid expansion (requiring at least three years) could not keep pace with project commissioning (averaging nine months).
• South Korea and Japan face high costs for solar power; South Korean solar is identified as the most expensive globally at US$116/MWh, while Japanese solar is the second most expensive due to land, labour, and construction costs.
• Indonesia has significant untapped solar potential of 200 GW but currently has one of the lowest shares of solar electricity generation in the G20 at 0.06%. To align with a 1.5C global heating scenario, it would need approximately 7 GW of additional solar capacity annually until 2030.
• Meeting current 2030 solar targets could save the seven highlighted countries at least US$44 billion in fuel costs by 2030, which is US$10 billion more than the savings seen in the first half of 2022.

APA

Edianto, A. S., Suarez, I., & Waite, N. (2022). The sunny side of Asia. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report-The-sunny-side-of-Asia-1.pdf

Chicago

Edianto, Achmed Shahram, Isabella Suarez, and Norman Waite. The sunny side of Asia. Ember, 2022. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report-The-sunny-side-of-Asia-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Edianto |first1=Achmed Shahram |last2=Suarez |first2=Isabella |last3=Waite |first3=Norman |title=The sunny side of Asia |publisher=Ember |date=10 November 2022 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report-The-sunny-side-of-Asia-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{edianto2022sunny, author = {Edianto, Achmed Shahram and Suarez, Isabella and Waite, Norman}, title = {{The sunny side of Asia}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Report-The-sunny-side-of-Asia-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }