The EPIA has released the “Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 2014-2018” report.The European Photovoltaic Industry Association has just published its “Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 2014-2018” report. The report includes solar photovoltaic market figures for 2013 and a forecast for the 2014-2018 period.
According to the report, 2013 was another historic year for solar photovoltaic technology. Compared to the two previous years, where installed capacity hovered only slightly above 30 GW annually, the PV market progressed remarkably in 2013, with at least 38.4 GW of newly-installed solar photovoltaic capacity worldwide and a global cumulative installed capacity of 138.9 GW.
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Some of the report’s highlights include:
- The European PV market was no longer the top regional PV market in the world, the region only represented 29% of the world’s new PV installations in 2013.
- China was the top market in 2013 with 11.8 GW of which 500 MW represent off-grid systems, followed by Japan with 6.9 GW and the USA with 4.8 GW.
- Germany was the top European market with 3.3 GW. Several other European markets exceeded the one GW mark: the UK (1.5 GW), Italy (1.4 GW), Romania (1.1 GW) and Greece (1.04 GW).
- Outside Europe, several markets continued to grow at a reasonable pace: India with 1,115 MW, Korea with 442 MW, Thailand with 317 MW and Canada with 444 MW.
- PV markets in Europe and around the world continued to make rapid progress toward competitiveness in the electricity sector in 2013. Competitiveness is being reached progressively in some market segments of several EU countries.
- In most countries however, PV remains a policy-driven market and declining political support for PV has led to reduced markets in several European countries.
- For the third year in a row, PV in 2013 was amongst the two most installed sources of electricity in the EU.
- PV now covers 3% of the electricity demand and 6% of the peak electricity demand in Europe.
The full text of the “Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 2014-2018” report is available online.
