Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 30 2022
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AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec
Japan and South
Korea hit solar power
records in May
JAPAN SOUTH Korea and Japan have both achieved two countries in Asia (Japan and China) were
new solar records in May in the midst of a coal among the global top 10.
and gas crisis, energy think-tank Ember said. The trend reflects the global acceleration
For the first time, Japan saw a new record for towards wind and solar energy, which have dou-
solar generation. It generated more than 10 TWh bled since 2015 to deliver a record tenth of global
from solar in May, reaching 15% of total electric- electricity in 2021, according to Ember’s Global
ity generation. Electricity Review.
Meanwhile in South Korea, as May’s elec- However, Japan and South Korea still remain
tricity demand reached the highest levels since highly reliant on fossil fuels to generate more
2005, solar power generated more than 7% of the than half their electricity needs.
nation’s electricity, reaching an all-time high for Japan generated 68% of its electricity from
the month. fossil fuels across the whole of 2021, and recently
Japan’s solar capacity in 2021 was 20 times began building a new coal plant in Taketoyo in
larger than it was in 2010. Thanks to its solar central Japan. South Korea was reliant on fossil
growth in recent years, it was able to generate fuels to generate 56.2% of its electricity last year.
9.8% of the country’s electricity last year. How- According to the IPCC’s latest analysis, wind
ever, analysts believe there is considerable poten- and solar power need to generate more than 40%
tial to expand on this going forward. of the world’s electricity by 2030 to keep climate
South Korea’s share of solar electricity gen- change at or below 1.5 degrees of warming.
eration has grown from less than 1% in 2016 to Aditya Lolla, senior electricity policy analyst
over 4% in 2021. But this is still well below the at Ember Asia, said: “Solar’s continued growth in
international average. Japan and South Korea represents a positive sign
Across Asia, solar has proved increasingly in moving towards a more sustainable, afforda-
popular. Asian countries now make up five of ble and secure energy supply. The added capac-
the top ten economies in terms of installed solar ity has been especially valuable recently, but both
capacity, including Japan in fourth place and countries have a lot more potential they need to
South Korea in ninth place. A decade ago, only tap into going forward.”
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