Asia-Pacific Thermal Power Plant Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market is expected to rise at a CAGR of more than 2.5% during the forecast period of 2020-2025. Factors such as the increase in industrial operations and energy demand in the developing countries in the region are likely to drive the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market. However, the increasing share of renewable energy in the total energy generation is expected to restrain the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market.

Key Highlights

• Coal-based power plants, due to its abundance in the region in comparison to other energy sources is expected to be the largest segment and is likely to dominate the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market during the forecast period.
• The new and efficient technologies like supercritical and ultra-supercritical coal power plants, which reduce the amount of pollution (per KW), are expected to replace the aging power plants and are likely going to create several opportunities for the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market in the future.
• Due to its increasing projects of thermal power plants, China is expected to be the largest market for the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant.

Key Market Trends

Coal Segment Expected to Dominate the Market

• Coal-fired power plants generate energy from the combustion of coal. The region being the largest producer of coal, uses most of its coal to produce electricity. In 2019, the region approximately produced 124.72 Exajoules of coal, which is approximately 74.4% of the coal's global production.
• The major countries in the region, such as China and India, due to their rapidly increasing industrialization and urbanization are expected to drive the thermal power plant market in the Asia-Pacific region during the forecast period. Whereas, Japan, after 2011 tsunamis, has to close down its most of the nuclear power plants, which made Japan use coal and natural gas as a significant source of energy generation.
• In 2019, the total electricity produced by coal energy in Asia-Pacific was 7376.4 terawatt-hours (TWh), which was higher than the region produced in 2018, 7286.1 TWh. The increase in energy generation from coal exhibits the growing usage of coal in the region. Coal being in abundance and economical in the region, is widely used by the power generating companies.
• Japan, in 2019 announced 22 coal-burning projects at 17 different sites. These projects are expected to produce electricity using coal. Such number of projects in the country related to coal-fired power plants are expected to drive the thermal power plant market during the forecast period.
• Patratu Super Thermal Power Project, Jharkhand in India, started in 2018 and is expected to be completed in 2022. The project has the capacity to produce 4000 megawatts (MW) of power and is coal-fired. For India, coal has been a major source of energy in the past and still holds a significant share in energy generation sources in the country. This is expected to have a positive impact on the thermal power plant market in the country.
• Hence, owing to the above points, the coal segment is likely going to dominate the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market during the forecast period.

China Expected to Dominate the Market

• China has the largest population, because of which there is a constant increase in the energy demand that requires an increasing number of industrial operations and continually growing demand for power supply in the residential regions of the country are expected to drive the thermal power plant market.
• China currently has 45 nuclear power reactors that are operational and 12 that are either under construction or in the development phase. Due to the excessive use of coal-fired power plants and the pollution it causes, the China government has a long term target to use more closed-cycle nuclear power to satisfy its energy demand.
• In 2019, the total thermal energy generated in China was 5444.9Terawatt-Hours (TWh), higher than the energy production of 2018, 5281TWh. The increasing thermal energy in the country exhibits a conventional form of generating electricity, which is more economical and fulfills all the country's raw material requirements. This is expected to drive the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market.
• The country's gas production industry is booming at a reasonable rate, which is likely to drive the gas-fired power plants in the country. In 2019, China produced 177.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, which was higher than what was produced in 2018, 161.5 billion cubic meters (bcm), and the country also saw a rise in the energy generated from the gas-fired plants in the same year.
• Shandong Shenglu Coal-Fired Power Project in China can produce 4000 megawatts (MW) of energy. Its first phase was planned to be completed in 2019, and the second phase to be started in 2020. The project is expected to be one of the flag bearers for the country's thermal power plant market.
• Hence, owing to the above points, China is expected to dominate the Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market during the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The Asia-Pacific thermal power plant market is fragmented. Some of the key players in this market include NTPC Limited, Datang International Power Generation Company Limited, China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC), Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc., and Korea Electric Power Corporation.

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