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As Europe struggles with a power shortage, Asia-Pacific’s power supply remains secure mainly because the region still uses a lot of coal, data has shown.

With liquified natural gas supplies in the region redirected to Europe, power generators in Asia not only have less access to LNG but have had to opt out of buying more expensive LNG driven by strong demand in Europe. 

Europe is struggling with a gas shortage as Russia cuts its supplies, forcing many countries into an energy crisis in the lead up to winter. The U.K.’s National Grid has warned of possible power cuts.

On Tuesday, the EU steered away from a proposed price cap on Russian gas as it laid out new measures to tackle high energy prices. Russia had previously said it would halt all fuel supplies to the EU if the bloc imposed these caps, which suppress Russian revenues and price of commodities.

S&P Global chief energy strategist Atul Aryal said while the crunch in Europe and the war in Ukraine have forced up prices of fuel such as oil and gas globally, it has not hurt Asia’s energy generation. 

According to the International Energy Agency’s latest gas report, in the first eight months of the year, Asian spot or short-term LNG imports were down 28% compared to the same time last year. Overall LNG imports fell 7% year-on-year.

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“In Asia, instead of using gas, countries are using coal because coal is here, coal is domestic and less expensive,” Arya told CNBC.

“The downside is that Asia, which is growing gas consumption, has stopped, at least for now.”

Unlike Europe which relies on gas for energy creation, gas is less relevant to Asia. It only forms 11% of its power mix and imported LNG forms a small part of that with most gas coming from domestic production, Wood Mackenzie head of Asia Pacific power & renewables research Alex Whitworth said.

Coal takes up a larger portion of the mix, although it is falling, Whitworth added. The share of coal in power generation for Asia-Pacific markets is more than 60%, he said.

The deployment of renewables takes time and will not ease security concerns in the short term … therefore, we are likely to see more of a push to boost the supply of fossil fuels and therefore the reliance on these dirtier fuels.

Warren Patterson

ING Economics

Separately, Asia’s LNG imports have fallen due to high prices.

According to the International Energy Agency’s latest gas report, Asian spot or short-term LNG imports fell 28% in the first eight months of the year compared with the same time last year. Overall LNG imports fell 7% year-on-year. 

Imports to China — now the biggest global LNG importer — fell the most by 59%. The decrease in LNG imports for Japan, Pakistan and India were 17%, 73% and 22% respectively, the IEA said. 

The agency explained it wasn’t just high prices deterring Chinese buyers, but also the country’s slowing economy, milder winter temperatures and strong domestic production of its own gas and coal.

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These factors have set up opportunities for more coal use in Asia, amid efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels. For example, Korea Electric Power Corporation has started using more coal in recent months, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

The company used about 26% more coal in July this year compared with the previous month, but that was still lower than the volume used last year, data from IEEFA showed. 

“KEPCO’s data suggests that both coal and LNG power generation have fallen since May as a result of higher prices year on year. However, there is a clear increase month on month of coal power generation,” IEEFA energy finance analyst Ghee Peh said.

LNG imports in China – now the biggest global LNG importer – fell the most at 59%.

Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Images

This follows that Korea — which, like Japan, uses more gas than other Asian markets — so to some extent, have had to compete for limited gas like Europe. But, because of the availability of domestic supplies, they are more secure than Europe, Whitworth added.

In other words, Asia’s dependence on coal and relatively less reliance on gas imports mean it has higher energy security.

In general, tighter LNG supplies and higher prices now mean that some countries would have to rely on relatively “cheaper and dirtier fuels,” ING Economics head of commodities strategy Warren Patterson said in a recent note.

“One would expect that the high fossil fuel price environment would speed up the green push from governments across Asia, particularly given that a number of these economies are large net importers of energy,” Patterson said. 

“However, clearly, the deployment of renewables takes time and will not ease security concerns in the short term.”

“Therefore, we are likely to see more of a push to boost the supply of fossil fuels and therefore the reliance on these dirtier fuels.”

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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April 2, 2025

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, the French CAE and the German Council of Economic Experts have called for "a common approach" by France and Germany in the decarbonisation of road freight transport. And in doing so, the experts are clearly committed to battery-electric trucks.

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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April 2, 2025

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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April 1, 2025

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova SunZia
Photo: GE Vernova

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction

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