According to a new report from Global Energy Watch, photovoltaic growth data in Southeast Asia is quite good, providing a reference for people to explore this market.

According to reports, the ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Timor-Leste have more than 28GW of large-scale ground-mounted photovoltaic and wind energy installed capacity in 2023, an increase of 20% from the end of 2022.

The numbers are good, but the question remains whether the region will be able to bring all of the proposed capacity online.

The report, titled "Race to the Top: Southeast Asia 2024," introduces the energy structure of the ten ASEAN member states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and Timor-Leste. The report concludes that renewable energy capacity is rising across the region.

Among them, Vietnam's solar installed capacity has reached 13GW, ahead of the Philippines and Malaysia, which have installed capacities of 2.3GW and 1.6GW respectively.

As of the end of 2023, all countries except Brunei, Laos and Timor-Leste have solar projects in operation, and the total installed solar capacity in 11 countries is 18.7GW, exceeding the current wind power installed capacity of 9.4GW.

This conclusion is consistent with a report by energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, which also shows that Vietnam is leading the Southeast Asian photovoltaic market, with cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity already ranking first in the region.

Another country to watch is the Philippines, which has attracted significant interest from the solar industry, especially floating PV developers. Both SunAsia and BlueLeaf Energy have announced plans to build 1.3GW of floating PV in the Philippines starting in 2025. In March 2023, the Philippine government also launched a round of bidding for 3GW solar, onshore wind power and bioenergy projects. Renewable energy has become increasingly important in the Philippines' energy structure.

In fact, the Philippines has considerable solar potential, with 36.6GW of new PV potential, ahead of Indonesia with 16.5GW and Vietnam with 10.2GW. As shown in the chart below, ASEAN member states have announced or are constructing several gigawatts of power capacity projects.

However, questions remain about whether these countries are capable of achieving these ambitious goals. The report notes that while ASEAN member states plus Timor-Leste have the potential to install 220GW of new renewable energy capacity, only 6GW of this (equivalent to 3% of this potential) is currently under construction.

By comparison, excluding China, the average share of new renewable power capacity currently under construction globally is 7%, more than double the proportion under construction in ASEAN countries.

This phenomenon is particularly prominent in Vietnam. The proportion of large-scale renewable energy power capacity currently under construction in Vietnam only accounts for 2%. The report noted that nearly 40GW of new solar and wind capacity had been installed "without any progress or announcements in the past two years." This shows that although Vietnam has developed a strong renewable energy industry so far, it is struggling to maintain this growth rate.

While there has been some progress in Vietnam's solar industry (Trina Solar recently commissioned a 12.6MW rooftop project in Thailand Nguyen province), this shows that the Vietnamese solar industry is focusing more on small projects and household projects rather than on A large-scale ground power station project that has a great impact on Vietnam's energy structure.

"While Vietnam is working to increase the development of renewable energy, the situation is further complicated by fossil fuel consumption and low solar and wind energy construction rates across the region," the report's authors wrote in their conclusion.

By redoubling efforts to bring an expected 220GW of large-scale ground-mounted PV and wind energy projects to fruition, ASEAN countries are expected to not only achieve regional renewable energy targets but also pave the way away from fossil fuels. "

In addition, as mentioned earlier in the article, floating surface photovoltaic power plants also have good development prospects in this area and are worth looking forward to. Previously, a special article on PV Tech introduced it (in-depth: Southeast Asian countries invest in building floating photovoltaic power stations, what is the potential?).Trina solar panels