The world’s energy needs are constantly on the rise, and power companies are looking at all sorts of possibilities and modes to fulfill the increasing demand. It’s a tough task to produce enough electricity to power the needs of all the people across the world. A traditional source such as fossil fuel has been used on a wide scale as the most significant source of energy. However, due to environmental concerns and increasing emissions, governments across the world are slowly reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and are switching over to a cleaner source of energy. As a result, renewable energy sources have been grabbing the headlines more often. The APAC region has been regarded as the prime example for the adoption of renewable energy sources for their power requirements. Numerous reports estimate the energy demand in the APAC region to nearly double by 2030. The region is on the right path to meet such demands even after reducing their dependence on traditional sources. The Chinese government is expected to 
move away from energy production from coal, which kills thousands of people each year. So, what does the renewable energy future look like in the Asia-pacific region?
China
China is a world leader in wind energy generation and has ambitious plans to triple its solar power capacity by 2020. The country is aiming to raise its solar energy generation to 150GW and wind energy generation to around 250GW by 2020. Although the renewable energy sources accounted for approximately 14% of Chinese power, they expect to increase this figure to 22% by 2020. In 2017, China announced to scrap their plans to build 85 coal-fired power plants and instead pour about $350 billion into renewable energy. Additionally, the authorities reported that the country had exceeded official targets for carbon intensity, energy efficiency, and the share of clean energy source.
India
Similar to China, in 2015, India also announced their ambitious goal of increasing the renewable energy power capacity to 175GW by 2022. This plan includes increasing the solar capacity to 100GW, wind energy to 60GW, bioenergy to 10GW, and hydropower to 5GW. If they achieve this target, then they will witness a five-fold increase in power capacity in a span of seven years. Currently, India is the fourth largest installer of wind power behind China, the US, and Germany. India has been largely helped by the falling solar installation prices, with the rate falling as low as 4 cents a kilowatt hour to add 250MW of solar capacity in Rajasthan.
Japan
The shift towards a renewable energy future seems to be picking up steams in Japan. After the Tohoku earthquake, 2011 Tsunami, and triple meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the Japanese government introduced a feed-in tariff system to promote renewable energy. The scheme made it mandatory for utilities to purchase wind, solar, mini-hydro, and geothermal energy at a fixed rate for the specified number of years. A report from IEEFA expects Japan’s solar energy to account for 12% of electricity mix by the year 2030. The report also estimates the renewable capacity to reach 159GW by the year 2030.
Others
The success of solar farms in Thailand coupled with positive development in other clean energy resource puts Thailand right on track to achieve its goal to reach the share of renewable energy by more than 37% by 2036. Additionally, the development of ultra-fast charging battery in Singapore is showing a promising renewable energy future as it can charge batteries up to 70% in just two minutes.
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