International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) has published the latest report on global PV markets, Snapshot of Global PV Markets (The “Report”). The Report notes that the global PV installation in 2014 was 38.7GW and the cumulative installation has reached 177GW by the end of 2014.

According to the Report, approximate 38.7GW of solar systems have been installed in the world. The top three countries, which are also part of the IEA PVPS Program were: China, 10.6GW installed; Japan, 9.7GW installed; and USA, 6.2GW installed. However, the final number for the 2014 PV market could be close to 40GW with additional installations not yet reported or from non-reporting countries. The global PV market grew slightly from 2013, when the annual installation was 37.6GW, wrote in the 2014 edition report.

EnergyTrend had projected a 44.1GW installation, 5.4GW higher than the realized capacity. The gap is recognized as a result of China’s installation capacity which was below the 14GW goal. Weak performance in Germany could be another reason .

Globally, the Report shows that at least 177GW of solar power have been installed all over the world, with 155GW were installed in IEA-PVPS countries and approximate 22GW capacity installed in other major countries. By the end of 2014, there were 20 countries with more than 1GW of solar systems installed and 5 countries with at least 1GW.

So far, 1% of the world electricity is generated by PV, and there are 19 countries that have enough PV capacity to produce at least 1% of their power demand with PV. Italy, Greece and Germany now have enough PV capacity to produce respectively 7.9%, 7.6%, and 7.0% of their annual power demand with PV systems. In Europe, PV represents 3.5% of the electricity demand and 7% of the peak electricity demand.

Facts:

• Asia ranks in first place for the second year in a row with around 60% of the global PV market.
• China revised its installation numbers downward for 2013 (from 12.92 GW to 10.95 GW) and reached 10.6 GW in 2014, in a stable market. - Japan continued to boom with around 9.7 GW installed and connected to the grid in 2014.
• The market in Europe has decreased significantly from 22 GW in 2011 to around 7 GW in 2014.
• The US market increased again to 6.2 GW, with large-scale and new business models dominating.
• Several established markets confirmed their maturity in 2014, including Australia (0.9 GW), Korea (0.9 GW), Canada (0.5 GW), Taiwan and more.
• Emerging markets started to contribute to the global PV development in 2014, such as South Africa (0.8 GW), Chile (0.4 GW), Mexico (64 MW) and Turkey.
• The MEA market experienced the highest growth, thanks to South Africa, but they still represented only around 1 GW.
• The first European country for installations in 2014 was UK with 2.27 GW, followed by Germany (1.9 GW) and France going up again (0.9 GW).
• In the top 10 countries, there are 4 Asian Pacific countries (China, Japan, India and Australia), three European countries (Germany, Italy and France), two countries in the North American region (USA, Canada) and one in African country (South Africa)
• 20 countries had at least 1 GW of cumulative PV systems capacity at the end of 2014 (Switzerland, the Netherlands and Thailand reached that level in 2014) and 5 countries installed at least 1 GW in 2014 (compared to 9 in 2013).

(Photo Source: Flickr )