- Over 5 per cent growth worldwide
- China remains market leader with 42 per cent share
- EU records 36 per cent growth
According to Solar Power Europe’s projections, the solar industry is experiencing renewed growth. With a 5 percent increase over the previous year, the newly installed solar power capacity in 2018 is over 104.1 gigawatts (GW) worldwide, compared to 99.1 GW in 2017. The final figures will then be published in May at the “Global Market Outlook For Solar Power 2019”.
According to the latest figures of the European solar industry association Solar Power Europe (SPE), Europe alone recorded a solar energy growth of 20 per cent to a total capacity of 11 GW, compared to 9.2 GW in the previous year. In the 28 member states of the European Union, newly installed capacity rose by a full 36 per cent in 2018 from 5.9 GW to 8.0 GW of newly installed capacity.
Germany is expected to regain first place among European solar locations after five years. Almost 3 GW was installed in 2018, which represents growth of around 68 percent compared to the previous year. The second largest European market would thus be the previous leader of the ranking – Turkey – with around 1.6 GW. The Netherlands follows in third place with 1.4 GW, just ahead of France (0.9 GW) and Italy (0.5 GW).
Globally, China continues to lead the ranking. Even with a decline of 16 percent, the Middle Kingdom is by far the world’s largest producer of solar energy with 44.1 GW and thus a 42 percent share of the total global market volume. This also puts China well above the expectations of experts, who had forecast much worse figures after the Chinese government announced a reform of the solar subsidy programme in May 2018. In addition to China, the USA with 11.4 GW and India with 8.3 GW were among the most important global markets last year.
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