A new report from energy think tank Ember has shown how firmed solar now undercuts most of the new gas power capacity Asia is planning to build and that electrifying the region’s road transport could save more than $US300 billion a year in oil imports.
The report, Electric Asia, describes these two so-called “superlevers” as Asia’s cheapest option for growth, but also the region’s only path to keep growing without deepening a region-wide dependence on fossil fuel imports, which already costs $US1.1 trillion each year.
Currently, Asia boasts only 4 per cent of the world’s oil and gas reserves, even though the region simultaneously accounts for 75 per cent of the electrotech machinery that is transforming how the world uses electricity: solar and wind generators; electrification – from vehicles to heat pumps, and; connections from batteries to digitalisation.
According to Ember, Asia manufactures over 95 per cent of solar panels, 85 per cent of batteries and 75 per cent of wind turbines. At the same time, Asia has enough solar and wind resources to supply at least 14-times its total energy demand and 100 times its oil and gas production.
Moreover, Asia has driven three-quarters of the growth in global electricity since the turn of the century, with GDP and electricity demand rising in lockstep and greater electrification being achieved at lower incomes per capita.
