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Global utility-scale solar capacity surpassed 10,000 MW in 2014, marking a fifth consecutive record year–according to provisional data published on Monday by Wiki-Solar.
This trend is believed to continue in 2015 due to further progress in the US, China and India as well as solar capacity growth in Chile, Japan and South Africa.
Surprisingly, the majority of new solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in 2014 were seen in Asia, North and Central America, but surprisingly Africa and South America also made significant contributions to the overall figure. In particular, South Africa saw the commissioning of a 74-MW solar farm at Sishen earlier this month, while Chile installed 13 new solar PV plants.
The US leads once again in terms of PV installations, but 2014 PV deployment in Japan, China and India is expected to help Asia dethrone North America as the leading solar continent.
Only Australasia and Oceania have not yet jumped on the solar bandwagon as Australia, in particular, is experiencing policy reversals.
As per 2015, Wiki-Solar’s founder Philip Wolfe anticipates developers to accelerate installations in the U.S. due to the reduction in solar tax incentives from 2016 on-wards.
He also projects that the UK, which has already hit 2 GW, will become the world’s fourth solar market by the end of March, even though it may be just for a short period of time given the planned amendments to its Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme.
The official 2014 figures will be disclosed in March 2015. Wiki-Solar’s analysis covers only solar power plants of at least 4 MW in capacity.
Reference:
World installs over 10 GW of large solar capacity in 2014; by Ivan Shumkov of SeeNews Renewables – Dec 29, 2014
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