Global solar energy installations to cross 54 GW this year

Installations of solar power generation capacities worldwide are projected to touch 54,500 MW this year while India is expected to add 1,800 MW during the same period, says a report.

“Another solid year is in store for the global solar industry and new streams of funding are coming into the sector,” Mercom Capital Group, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm, said.

Although Mercom has yet to provide its final global 2014 install figures PV demand is expected to remain strong in 2015, driven by China, Japan and the US.

 

“China and Japan have to overcome some implementation issues for 2015 to be another good year for global solar installations,” said Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group. “On the positive side, new funding mechanisms are helping reduce the cost of financing and are bringing in new streams of funding into the sector.”

Mercom noted that China’s NEA target for 2015 was aggressive at 17.8GW for 2015, after official NEA figures for 2014 disappointed at 10.6GW. However, China once again was the largest market in 2014 and is expected to remain so in 2015.

With respect to Japan, Mercom said approximately 9GW of PV installations were expected in the country in 2014 and expected a similar figure for 2015.

However, the US could overtake Japan as the second largest market, according to Marcom as it guided installs to reach around 8.5GW, up from recently released figures from GTM/SEIA of 6.2GW for 2014.

The European solar market was said to have continued to decline in 2014, primarily to Germany failing to reach 2GW of installs, a figure said by Mercom to be similar (1.9GW) in 2015.

However, as the UK installed 2.2GW in 2014, Mercom expects 2.9GW installed in the country in 2015.

With India’s installation figures just out (883MW) for 2014, Mercom said it expected significant growth in 2015, putting a target of 1.8GW on the country.