Europe Losing its Solar Shine

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - Europe's dominance in the global solar power market will continue to diminish in the coming years as growth in non-European markets rocketed during 2012.

More than 30,000-megawatts (MW) of new solar photovoltaic capacity was added last year, taking the world total to more than 100,000 MW for the time. The shift in power from Europe to non-European countries, particularly China, the United States and Japan, is clearly highlighted in the new market figures from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

Last year Europe added almost 17,000 MW of new solar capacity, a notable drop from 23,000 MW in 2011. Around 13,000 MW of new PV installations occurred outside of Europe in 2012, up from just under 8,000 MW in 2011. That shows a drop of 6,000 MW in Europe and a jump of 5,000 MW for non-European markets during last year. It is a trend that the EPIA expects to continue.

The preliminary figure of 30,000 MW of new capacity is similar to the record-setting year of 2011 and that figure could rise by up to 2,000 MW when the final numbers come in. These will be published in May, in the EPIA's annual "Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 2013-2017" report.

"No one would have predicted even 10 years ago that we would see more than 100 GW of solar photovoltaic capacity in the world by 2012," said EPIA President Winfried Hoffmann. "The photovoltaic industry clearly faces challenges but the results of 2012 show there is a strong global market for our technology. Even in tough economic times and despite growing regulatory uncertainty, we have nearly managed to repeat the record year of 2011."

Despite severe subsidy cuts, 2012 was another record year for Germany in the solar power sector. Figures from the grid regulator, Bundesnetzagentur and the German Environment Ministry, show that solar installations topped 7,634 MW last year, a rise of 2% over the total installed in 2011 (7,485 MW). For additional information, see January 17, 2013, article - Germany Sets New Solar Record.

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