As the ASEAN region moves to become the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030, its demand for electricity is expected to grow exponentially, but the region has an opportunity to increase installed capacity of renewable energy and reduce dependence on conventional power, according to the Energy Industries Council’s ASEAN Operational Insight Report, released this week.
The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a political and economic bloc made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. It has a rapidly growing population of around 650 million people.
Using the data recorded in our intuitive online databases – EICDataStream and EICAssetMap – EIC analysts produced the ASEAN Operational Insight Report 2022, offering a detailed analysis of South-East Asia’s energy mix.
Here are some key findings from the report:
- South-East Asian countries generate 80% of their energy from conventional power plants. Overall, the region has 173GW of installed conventional power across 371 operational assets, over 96% of which are fuelled by coal or natural gas.
- By the end of 2023, ASEAN is projected to have 214GW of installed conventional power across 420 operational assets.
- The region’s countries have announced various plans and targets to increase the share of renewable energy in their power mix. For example, Vietnam plans to increase renewables share of installed power capacity to 30% by 2036, Indonesia to 31% by 2050, Thailand to 33% by 2037, Malaysia to 20% by 2025 and the Philippines to 50% by 2040.
- So far, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia account for 86% of South-East Asia’s installed capacity of renewable energy.
- Offshore wind power is, however, limited to Vietnam, which has an 866MW installed across 13 offshore and nearshore assets. By the end of 2023, Vietnam is expected to have 2.2GW of offshore wind installed across 21 operational assets, which is ASEAN’s entire offshore wind capacity.
- The case is different with onshore wind and solar power. Both currently account for 10% and 20% of ASEAN’s installed renewable capacity, respectively
- By the end of 2023, ASEAN is projected to have 8.3GW of onshore wind installed across 90 operational assets and 20.4GW of solar power installed across 267 operational assets in total.
To access the full the report, click here.