According to a recently published report by GBI Research*, the Asia-Pacific region’s cumulative installed capacity from renewable energy sources (excluding hydropwer) is expected to reach 535.2 GW (535,200 MW) by 2020.
Of course, the rapid economic growth of several countries in this region is a key factor stimulating this projected growth, as well as the urgent and widely recognized threat of global warming.
The percentage of power generated from renewable energy sources is expected to rise from 12.1% in 2011 to around 19% in 2020, according to GBI Research’s Renewable Energy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2020 report*. While that may look good superficially, that means that the greatly expanded power markets of the Asia-Pacific region would still be powered 81% by fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and hydropower — quite disheartening. Such a scenario would very likely lead us to catastrophic climate change that is hard to even think about.
Getting back to the report, I will give you 5 full pennies if you can guess which country will lead the way in renewable energy growth (answer after the jump).
If you guessed China, come to my apartment sometime and I’ll give you your five pennies.
By the end of China’s 12th five-year plan, China is expected to reach a staggering 130 GW (130,000 MW) of renewable energy capacity. (Unfortunately, as noted above, a similarly staggering rise in fossil fuel power would be very bad news for the climate that our water supplies, agriculture, and cities depends on.)
“Government of China has planned to add total 49 GW of renewable energy capacity in 2013 out of which 21 GW will be from hydro, 18 GW from wind and 10 GW from solar,” GBI Research writes. “China is expected to continue investing in the renewable energy industry, and the government has set a target for 15% of the country’s electricity to be being generated from renewable sources by 2020.”
Other major countries that will contribute to Asia-Pacific’s renewable energy growth include India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. “Between 2012 and 2020, the cumulative renewable installed capacity for China, India, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines is expected to increase at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.2%, from 181.7 Gigawatts (GW) in 2011 to 535.2 GW in 2020,” GBI Research writes.
*In order to let you know about more in-depth research on various cleantech markets, we’ve decided to partner with a couple of leading market research firms, GlobalData and GBI Research. Basically, the deal is pretty simple: you get a discount on market research reports (10% off**); CleanTechnica gets a cut of the sales (yay!); and GlobalData and GBI Research sell more of their top-notch market research reports.
**The discount code to use when ordering Renewable Energy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2020 is: GBIPC1609. The 10% discount expires on April 30, 2013.
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