What are the home solar systems in Asia

The two most popular and well known solar energy technologies are the solar photovoltaic (PV) system and the solar thermal system. In general, solar PV systems harness the sun's energy using PV cells, which is a specialised semiconductor diode that converts solar radiation into direct current (DC) electricity for usage.

Table 1shows a brief summary of the progress made by all the ASEAN countries in the field of solar PV. As it can be seen here, the country with the highest installed Solar PV capacity is Thailand (690.6 MW), followed by Malaysia (74.7 MW) and Indonesia (42.8 MW).

It is forecast that the total cumulative solar PV for ASEAN countries will reach approximately 1064 MW by the end of 2014.7To date, there are 5 countries already implementing FiT which are Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. Brunei will implement FiT at the end of 2015.

The solar installed capacity in Thailand, in 2013 was 690.6 MW compared to 167 MW in 2011. The installed capacity is expected to increase to 2000 MW by 2021, . In 2013, The National Energy Policy Commission (NEPC) has approved FiT rates for 200 MW of rooftop solar and 800 MW of community-owned ground mounts for a 25 years period .

The solar power capacity installed in Indonesia reached only 14 MW in 2011, but this amount increased to 59 MW in 2013, predominantly from utility scale power plants and solar home systems (SHS) .

The South-East Asian countries have quite similar climatic conditions – tropical hot and humid - as they are situated in the same geographical region. Most of these countries are considered as developing and middle-income countries. In terms of solar energy, they have a similar resource potential.