As the world’s largest continent covering around a third of the planet’s land – it may be of no surprise that Asia also burns the most energy of any other continent in the world. Home to over 4 billion people with several countries’ economies growing faster than the western worlds, Asia is a continent that is still growing now.
With such a large and growingly industrious continent, Asia requires a lot of energy to help fuel its growth. One part of Asia is supplying the world with oil. Prices are on the rise and the supply is limited meaning several countries have had to find alternatives.
Well aware of this potential problem and knowing they would need to go greener in the future – parts of the continent took steps to implementing renewable energy sources. In 2016, China became the world’s largest single producer of renewable energy in the world, contributing 40% of the global growth in renewable energy that year.
It is China who are still the world’s top renewable energy suppliers. They are helped massively by their wind farms. Leading the wind power production leader boards, they currently produce more than 168.7 gigawatts according to 2016 research. China also are looking to install another 10 gigawatts off shore before the end of 2020.
It’s not China who are leading the way in wind energy in Asia. The fourth largest producer of wind power in the world is in fact – India. They had previously installed energy capacity of 28.7 gigawatts, but that has increased. India aims to have another 60 gigawatts installed by the year 2022. It is estimated 14% of the energy India use will be renewable by 2030.
One country still in its infancy regarding wind energy technology is surprisingly Japan. Japan is seen as a very clean nation, but its renewable energy sources are being looked at. It has been estimated that Japan could become a global leader in renewable energy if they went all in with it. Potential for 144 gigawatt on shore wind turbines and a whopping 608 gigawatts of off shore wind capacity could be implemented further down the line.
Japan already have plans to build as many as 80 floating off shore wind turbines off the coast of Fukashima. This would be great to see as it was in 2011 where a nuclear disaster occurred, rendering the area a baron wasteland where humans had to evacuate with little – to- no time to grab belongings. To then build a harmless and renewable energy source nearby to bring energy production back to the area almost seems poetic.
South Korea is investing heavily into their renewable energy with wind being their preferred choice. They target $37 billion in renewable energy investment by 2020 as part of their efforts to meet the terms of the Paris Agreement to cut greenhouse emissions.
Going towards the Middle East, a lot of the countries have been heavily fossil fuel reliant. Countries in the region are trying to increase the amount of renewable energy they use and investing into wind farms has been looked at as options.
Iran have sanctions and restriction on what materials they can import, meaning the building of wind farms can be costly and thus lead to the very slow progress in their way of building them. Saudi Arabia on the other have plans for their first wind farm to be installed in the North-West of the Kingdom. The initiative is in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 project, targeting an initial 9.5 gigawatts of renewable energy to get started.
Qatar has seen an increase in energy demands in recent times, and with old methods of supplying energy leading to temporary blackouts, as well as the upcoming 2022 FIFA World cup, they are bidding to be a low CO2 emitting World Cup when it comes round in 4 years.
They have high potential for some wind energy, but supposedly are favouring solar energy as are neighbours UAE. The only key difference between Qatar and UAE, is that the UAE has heavily invested in other wind energy projects around the world.
The entire continent is taking renewable energy seriously and looking into it as a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
Whilst some countries might not be implementing wind farms, it is starting the discussion over a renewable energy resource and it is a conversation that needed to be had.
JULY 2018 | MANE ENERGY | 15