Global solar PV market to grow by 40%

Global Solar PV Market

The solar energy market was earmarked as one of the industries to drive forward the global economy as renewable energy became the new darling of government and private investment. This now looks like a pretty shrewd assessment as the global solar photovoltaic (PV) market is expected to grow by at least 40 percent in 2010, following a record year in 2009, according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

If the industry keeps to predicted trends then the global PV market could reach between 8.2-gigawatts (GW) and 12.7GW of new installations in EPIA's moderate and policy driven scenarios respectively, or an increase of between 40 percent and 60 percent.

Last year, across the world, the PV industry installed almost 6.5GW which was the largest ever annual increase and is even more impressive considering it came amidst a devastating global economic meltdown. Total capacity reached 20GW last year.

"Ramp-up of European markets"

Recently, Germany have come in for some serious praise (nowhere more so than here on Power & Energy EU) in reference to its renewable energy development and, unsurprisingly, during 2009 Germany remained the largest market, with installations of 3GW and a cumulative capacity of 9GW. Italy was second largest, followed by Japan and the US in third and fourth spots.

It is fully expected that Germany will remain the world's biggest market for PV solar power in 2010 whilst markets across Europe, Asia and North America will also show significant growth.

Ingmar Wilhelm, president of EPIA summed up the group's findings by saying: "In addition to the ramp-up of many markets in Europe, the development and opening of new markets in Asia, the Americas and Africa is paving the way to a strong and sustainable momentum of PV powered supply solutions all around the world."

Related Articles:

Europe on track to meet RE targets | Europe keeps pace with the best | Germany's renewables sector is booming

Daniel Jones

Daniel is a Politics and Philosophy graduate from Cardiff University where he also worked as a section editor on the award winning student newspaper. After university he joined an IT support company where he was a B2B online writer. He loves anything to do with sport and joined GDS in July 2009.

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