Solar PV Installation numbers by Country in 2015 and expected by 2016
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USA, China, Germany, Japan and Italy are the five largest solar markets in the world in terms of installations. According to IHS, solar installations in the world are expected to cross the 310 GW mark by 2016 end. That will be a growth of 675% in the last six years, since 2010. China remains the largest market, followed by Germany, USA, Japan and Italy. Owing to a stable supply chain and pricing policy, China, USA and India will continue to drive strong solar growth in the next five years. China accounted for 30% of total global demand in 2015 alone. Europe and Asia accounted for the lion’s share in the total 2015 solar installations.
| Solar Installations in 2015 | in GW |
| China | 15.15 |
| Japan | 11 |
| Europe | 8.2 |
| USA | 7.3 |
| India | 2 |
| Korea | 1 |
| Australia | 0.9 |
| Canada | 0.6 |
| Chile | 0.45 |
| Taiwan | 0.4 |
| South Africa | 0.2 |
Data from Solar Power Europe
Germany achieved more than 30% of electricity through renewable energy sources in 2015. Though Germany’s attractive feed in tariffs have played a major role in driving solar in the country, new installations declined steadily since 2011. Europe too crossed the 100GW mark in early 2016. China and Japan together accounted for more than 50% of newly installed capacity in 2015. While China, USA and India will drive steady growth to solar, Japan might slow down. One of the major reasons for solar development in these countries is the strong government support, which is lacking in Japan.
COP21 & ITC major drivers for 2015
The Paris summit and the investment tax credit extension in December last year, proved to be of great help in achieving these numbers. 2015 witnessed a whopping 50 GW of installations globally and is set to achieve another 60 GW in 2016. The world could see installations upto 120 GW by 2020, in a highly progressive scenario. However the solar industry also faced the brunt from the utility segment, with Nevada (the seventh largest state in USA) altering its net metering laws. This shows how mainstream solar power is getting with each passing day, even frightening the utilities.
| Total Global Installations (in GW) | |
| 2014 | 40.3 |
| 2015 | 50.6 |
2016 PV Installations
The year 2016 is set to witness 60 GW of new installations – could even reach 77 GW mark in a high scenario. China is expected to be the largest market for solar and has already installed 7 GW in the first quarter of 2016. India is also aiming at installing 12 GW by March 2017. India which has just finished installing 7 GW of renewable energy capacity addition in the last one year, has an ambitious target to achieve 100 GW of solar installation mark by 2022.
Changes in feed in tariff policies in Japan and Germany will definitely have an effect on the installations there. Asia will continue to dominate the solar market. USA is expected to reach 2 million installs in the next 2 years, as per SEIA. In Italy solar power has already achieved gid parity with solar prices getting competitive with other sources of power. Did you know… Bologna’s fruit and vegetable market has Europe’s largest solar roof. Not only that it also uses its solar panels to power electric cars. These are the trends that have started to set worldwide.