GENERAL OVERVIEW
The past decade was dominated by the development of renewable
energy policies across Southeast Asia. The first promising
markets were developed in Thailand and Malaysia, followed by
the Philippines and Indonesia. Energy demand—both for transport
fuels and for electricity generation—continues to grow faster
than the deployment of renewables. While the mainland states
of Southeast Asia rely heavily on gas and coal for power generation,
the island states such as the Philippines and Indonesia still
use a large number of diesel generators on their smaller islands.
Renewable energy potentials are diverse across the region;
solar, wind, hydro, and biomass as well as geothermal and ocean
energy can be utilised. The geographical situation favors decentralised
distributed power generation and mini-grids.