
LONDON/NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): The world is witnessing a massive move towards clean energy with rapid growth seen in last few years in solar photovoltaic (PV)installations. Solar PV installations are expected to rise 26.3% from 19 gigawatts (GW) in 2010 to 24 GW in 2011, accordign to a new report from IMS Research. The research also revealed that Italy will displace Germany as the world's largest market.
Italy is expected to account for 28% of global PV installations in 2011, Germany 25%, Rest of the World 12%, USA 10%, China 8%, Japan 5%, France 4%, Australia, UK, Canada and India 2% each.
The new IMS report also highlights that the true size of the market in 2011 is contentious, depending on what is considered the size of the Italian market in 2010. Whilst IMS Research measures PV demand when a system is installed, other methods often consider connections, registrations or approvals leading to different market sizes. “There is much confusion over the size of the Italian market in 2010 and 2011 due to various data points for installations under the various ‘Conto Energias’. IMS Research has analysed module and inverter shipments to the country and cross-checked inventory levels at integrators and distributors to conclude that 4.5 GW of new capacity was installed in 2010 – despite a greatly higher number claiming the ‘Secondo Conto Energia’ which expired at the end of the year”, commented Ash Sharma, Senior Research Director for Photovoltaics.
Despite a freeze and then cuts to its incentives earlier this year, Italy is forecast to become the world’s largest market in 2011 for the first time; and install 6.8 GW of new capacity. Yet despite the strong performance of the Italian market, Europe is set for another underwhelming performance this year; with installations growing by just 3% because of falls in Germany and the Czech Republic and slow-downs elsewhere. “The upswing in Italian installations won’t be sufficient to counter falls from Germany and the Czech Republic and Europe’s share of global installations will sharply fall from 82% in 2010 to 68% in 2011”, noted Sharma.
Growth from Americas & Asia
IMS Research found that though Europe is stagnating, the American and Asian markets are performing well; these two regions will generate 85% of the global growth in installations in 2011. Furthermore, the research found that this trend is forecast to continue into 2012, when Europe’s share of new installations will fall to 50%. “The PV market continues to diversify in 2011; this will create short-term pain for suppliers that can no longer solely rely on one market to fuel their growth, but creates long-term stability for the industry by helping to balance the effects of a single country’s incentive policy and reduce large swings in supply and demand. This diversification is clearly continuing to happen and we have identified 20 markets that will install more than 100 MW in 2011, up from just 14 last year”, commented Sharma.
India solar
Meanwhile, India with a 2% share of solar PV installations has embarked on a major initiative,Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in January 2010, that aims to set up 20,000 MW grid power by 2022 in addition to 2000 MW of off-grid solar power. Dr Farooq Abdullah, India Minister for New and Renewable Energy recently told Parliament that he believes India has good potential for solar power as it receives solar energy equivalent to over 5,000 trillion kWh per year, which is far more than the total energy consumption of the country. He said the daily average solar energy incident varies from 4 - 7 kWh per square meter of the surface area depending upon the location and time of the year. The Minister added that the solar radiation is available at most locations in the country for about 300 days in a year.
Meanwhile, UK Minister of State for Climate Change and Energy Greg Barker said on Wednesday that UK was committed to investing in green energy despite the global financial crisis and pledged to support India financially to tap solar power.Speaking at the Suzlon headquarters at Hadapsar here, Barker said he was encouraged by India’s thrust on solar power generation. “Through the capital markets climate initiative, we are looking at ways to ensure that the decision to go green is the smarter financial choice. We are starting this work in India. Members of my initiative from major banks, institutions and investors in the city of London, have over the past few months been talking with people here about the barriers of scaling up investments in the renewables sector and are begining to look at solutions that cross the public-private boundaries.”
A study published by KPMG, a global consulting company has forecast that solar power can meet 5-7% of India’s total power requirements by 2021-22.



