Asia to overtake Europe as global solar power grows - EPIA

www.reuters.com
7 May 2012

(Reuters)-The world's solar power generating capacity will grow by between 200 and 400% over the next five years, with Asia and other emerging markets overtaking leadership from Europe, a European industry association said on Monday. "Europe has dominated the global PV (photovoltaic) market for years but the rest of the world clearly has the biggest potential for growth", the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) said in its market outlook until 2016.

The fastest PV capacity growth is expected in China and India, followed by the southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa in the next five years, said the report distributed at a PV conference in northern Italy. Global installed PV capacity, which turns sunlight into power, is expected to have risen to between 207.9 GWs and 342.8 GW in 2016, depending on the level of political support, from 69.7 GW in 2011, the report said.

This year, the world's total PV capacity is expected to rise to between 90 and 110 GW, EPIA's Secretary General Reinhold Buttgereit told the conference. "The growth will depend on the support of politicians. It's not only about money, it's also about reducing bureaucracy", Buttgereit told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. Germany, the world's biggest PV market, is likely to be the main global driver this year, followed by China, the United States and Japan. The pace of growth will slow in Italy, which was the fastest growing solar market in 2011, he said.

China is expected to add between 3 GW and 5 gw this year with new annual capacity rising to 4.5 10 GW in 2016, while to a total capacity of up to 39.1 GW, while the U.S, total capacity is seen rising up to 37.1 GW in 2016, the report said. Europe accounted for 75% the of new PV installations last year when the global added capacity nearly doubled to 29.7 GW on the back of generous production incentives, the EPIA said. "Such a rapid growth rate cannot be expected to last forever, however, and the industry is now weathering a period of uncertainty in the short term", the report said.

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