EPIA’s Global Market Outlook Released

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) presented its annual market figures to its Members on Friday 20 March 2009. The Global annual solar photovoltaic (PV) market grew to at least 5.6 GW in 2008 compared to 2.4 GW in 2007. Spain ranks first, followed by Germany.

In 2008, the Global annual PV market reached 5.6 GW and the cumulative PV power installed totalled almost 15 GW compared to 9 GW in 2007. Spain represented almost half of the new installations in 2008 with about 2.5 GW of newly-installed PV power, followed by Germany with 1.5 GW of additional connected systems in the last year. USA confirmed its trend with a 342 MW market, followed by South Korea which registered 274 MW of PV installations over the year. Italy connected almost 260 MW while France, Portugal, Belgium and the Czech Republic made good scores confirming Europe’s global leadership in the deployment of solar PV energy.

A diversification of the market is taking place with countries adopting appropriate support policies.

Figure 1 - Historical development of the Global annual PV market per Region

EPIA’s market and production forecasts for the next 5 years were also presented. Given the current crisis context, high uncertainties over the 2009 market exist. This year, experts believe the market could reach up to 7 GW; each individual country’s development influencing the final figure. In particular Spain recently changed its support scheme, setting-up a cap which will limit the development of the global market in 2009. The PV sector is hoping other markets such as the US, Germany, France and Italy will pull the demand. Favourable policy frameworks are expected to further accelerate PV deployment in these countries. In 2013, the global PV market could reach 22 GW if appropriate policies, such as feed-in tariffs, are in place.

Top 10 PV Markets in 2008*

Top 10 Cumulative Capacities in 2008*

These figures, together with detailed projections until 2013, have also been presented in detail at EPIA’s 3rd International Conference on Solar Photovoltaic Investments on 7-8 April 2009 in Frankfurt, Germany.

The new publication, “Global Market Outlook for photovoltaics until 2013”, has been released on that occasion.

Download it here.

For more information on EPIA market figures, contact our economist, Denis Thomas at d.thomas(at)epia.org.