Asia turns to the sun ~ THE NOVINY your daily news at hand.

BANGKOK (DPA) — The sun, once widely worshipped in Asia and still a popular deity among Hindus, is making a comeback on the continent.

Driven by the record-high oil prices of 2008, falling prices of photovoltaic (PV) panels in 2009 and growing concerns over global warming, governments throughout the region have started to look to the sun as an increasingly feasible source of renewable energy, albeit a limited one.

China, India, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand have introduced subsidies to promote the use of solar panels on rooftops and as small power producers. In Japan, no newcomer to sun power, subsidies and people’s growing awareness of climate change helped solar sales more than double in 2009, when capacity surged by 484 megawatts, according to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association.

An estimated 50 million Japanese households now have solar panels on their roofs – many for hot water use. Solar homes account for 88.7 percent of the total output.

In January, Japan reinstated subsidies for homeowners who purchase solar power systems, reducing costs by almost half, and in November, it introduced a feed-in tariff, similar to Germany, which requires utilities to buy excess solar power supplied to the electricity grid.

China, the world’s leading PV exporter, is now promoting domestic use. The government aims to increase China’s solar power generation capacity from 50 megawatts in 2008 to up to 20 gigawatts in 2020. Taiwan, another leader in PV exports, has allocated 280 million US dollars to subsidize a “100,000 solar roofs programme.’’

The government hopes to install 1,000 megawatt in solar-power capacity annually by 2025, compared with 6 megawatt now.

India has announced ambitious plans to boost solar output almost 1,000-fold to 20,000 megawatt by 2022. Thailand took the lead in promoting solar use in South-East Asia last year when the government introduced a feed-in tariff to encourage companies and homeowners to invest in the renewable energy.

courtesy of manila bulletin