Asia Is Building 73% of the World's New Nuclear Capacity

详细摘要

The Middle East crisis and the spiking oil and gas prices have shifted the Asian nations’ priorities to energy security and generating electricity with homegrown resources.…

What I Cover Tsvetana Paraskova is an energy and commodities journalist who has contributed to Oilprice.com for nearly a decade, covering global energy markets, commodities,…

The Middle East crisis and the spiking oil and gas prices have shifted the Asian nations’ priorities to energy security and generating electricity with homegrown resources.

Renewable energy capacity is soaring, not only in the top emerging markets China and India, but also across Southeast Asia, as the Strait of Hormuz crisis hiked LNG prices and dented gas demand.

Another clean energy source, nuclear capacity, is also gaining momentum globally. Countries worldwide started thinking about adding or building nuclear reactors for the first time in the wake of the previous energy crisis in 2022-2023.

Construction will take years, but rising nuclear capacity could combine with the renewables surge to change the long-term gas and coal demand patterns in Asia’s economies.

The world currently has 408 gigawatts (GW) of total operating nuclear power capacity. Another 91 GW is under construction, according to the Global Energy Monitor’s Global Nuclear Power Tracker.

Of the 91 GW of nuclear capacity in the construction stage, as much as 73%, or 66 GW, are in Asia, per the data compiled by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire.

Asia also leads in utility solar and wind power construction, as smaller emerging markets add to powerhouses China and India in boosting their renewable energy capacities.

China and India still rely on coal for a large part of their electricity supply and continue to approve and build coal-fired power plants, but they are also betting big on nuclear and renewables to meet soaring electricity demand.

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