NPD Solarbuzz Emerging Solar Market Asia-Pacific and Central Asia Report pointed out that emerging Asia-Pacific and Central Asia in 2017 solar power demand is expected to exceed 3GW, compared with 723MW in 2012 demand growth is very strong, the CAGR of up to 28% %.

"In the past, solar energy applications in Asia Pacific and Central Asia were mainly focused on solar lighting and residential buildings," said Han Qiming, an analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. "But in the future solar demand will come from the widespread use of large ground-based power plants. By 2017, The number will account for 64% of the total solar power in Asia Pacific and Central Asia. "

Demand for solar power in Asia Pacific and Central Asia is still highly fragmented and similar to other emerging solar markets, with diverse policies and a variety of end-market drivers. As Southeast Asia is widely regarded as a central hub for the upstream manufacturing of solar energy, policymakers have a deeper understanding of solar power generation and therefore draw lessons from the mature experience in the development of European PV market policies in the policy making process.

Solar demand in Asia Pacific and Central Asia comes mainly from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan. From 2013 to 2017, it is estimated that the solar energy demand of these five countries will account for 50% of the total demand.

Thailand is expected to become the largest single market in the region with the main drivers for the rapid growth in electricity demand and fiscal pressure to reduce energy imports.

Indonesia plans long-term solar power generation and is expected to increase solar power generation to 0.3% of its energy share by 2025, about 1GW of newly added solar energy demand. Indonesia will become the second largest in Southeast Asia by 2017 with the forthcoming tariff Solar market; China Taiwan and South Korea also rank solar power as a priority for renewable energy.

In the coming years, more countries in Asia Pacific and Central Asia will have more demand for solar energy. The Philippines announced at the end of 2012 more than 500MW of cumulative solar installations, mainly from Japan and South Korea‘s strong investment; Bangladesh is already the world‘s largest off-grid solar market and plans to add 1 million solar power generation systems by the end of 2016 Installation; Kazakhstan plans to install 77MW solar power station in the next few years; Pakistan also announced that it will have 500MW of solar power deployment.

"Although securing enough solar financing remains a challenge, the overall solar power demand in Asia Pacific and Central Asia is projected to reach 5GW by 5% globally in 2017," adds Han Qiming.