In their annual report released recently, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) have highlighted that the cummulative global solar PV installaed capacity has crossed 100 GW ending up a shade over at 102 GW. It has been estimated that 2012 saw the addition of 31.1 GW of new PV capacity (up from 30.4 GW in 2011). Europe, for the first time has witnessed a decrease in the annual installed capacity with the capacity additions being bolstered by emerging markets such as Japan, China, India and Australia. Europe’s share of the global PV market also fell from 74% in 2011 to about 55% in 2012.
The report makes for an interesting read. Some of the highlights from the report have been reproduced below
- Around the world 31.1 GW of PV systems were installed in 2012, up from 30.4 GW in 2011;PV remains, after hydro and wind power, the third most important renewable energy source interms of globally installed capacity
- 17.2 GW of PV capacity were connected to the grid in Europe in 2012, compared to 22.4 GW in 2011; Europe still accounts for the predominant share of the global PV market, with 55% of all new capacity in 2012
- Germany was the top market for the year, with 7.6 GW of newly connected systems; followed by China with an estimated 5 GW; Italy with 3.4 GW; the USA with 3.3 GW; and Japan with an estimated 2 GW
- For the second year in a row, PV was the number-one new source of electricity generation installed in Europe
- Under a pessimistic Business-as-Usual scenario, the global annual market could reach 48 GW in 2017; under a Policy-Driven scenario, it could be as high as 84 GW in 2017
- PV now covers 2.6% of the electricity demand and 5.2% of the peak electricity demand in Europe
- Commerical solar PV installations are gaining ground in Europe with 32% of the total installed capacity estimated to be systems set up for commercial use followed by ground mounted systems with a 28% share
- European industry represents only around 13% of the global market in terms of actual module production and around 24% of its own market. The rest is imported mainly from China and APAC countries which supply around 70% of the global PV demand.
- c-Si is expected to maintain is market share of about 80% till 2017 with TF’s share hovering around 10-12%
Indian View
India accounts for about 7% of the installed PV capacity (excluding the European market). Driven by local and global energy demand, the fastest PV growth is expected to continue in China and India, followed by Southeast Asia, Latin America and the MENA countries. EPIA expects the APAC region (without China) to represent between 10 and 20 GW each year until 2017. India, along with China, Singapore, Australia and Mexico ranks amongst the top countries which has a high investment attractiveness index.
It is expected that the initial growth in installed capacity will be driven by utility scale installations with residential/commercial installations expected to gain momentum over the course of the coming years. It has been estimated that the rooftop segment in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region would increase from about 3.23 GW in 2012 to about 12.6 GW by 2017. Year on year, the rooftop segment in this region is expected to be atleast twice that of the utility scale segment indicating a strong trend in market shift towards the rooftop segment.
The report can be accessed here.