The world’s cumulative solar PV exceeded 100GW in 2012 with a total of 101GW according to figures recently released by the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA). The figure is equivalent to 16 coal plants or nuclear reactors with 53 million tons of CO2 emissions reduced each year by the world’s PV installations.
The surpassing of the 100-GW mark occurred in yet another year of strong global PV development. An estimated 30GW was connected to the grid and made operational in 2012, but these results are preliminary and could be increased by an additional 1 or 2GW when final numbers come in. The figures will ultimately be published in EPIA’s annual ‘Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics 2013-2017’.
“No one would have predicted even 10 years ago that we would see more than 100 GW of solar photovoltaic capacity in the world by 2012,” said EPIA President Winfried Hoffmann. “The photovoltaic industry clearly faces challenges but the results of 2012 show there is a strong global market for our technology. Even in tough economic times and despite growing regulatory uncertainty, we have nearly managed to repeat the record year of 2011.”
The year also saw an important shift towards a more global PV market with 13GW occurring outside Europe, compared to just under 8GW in 2011. Nearly 17GW was installed in Europe compared to nearly 23GW in 2011. In 2012 the three most important PV markets were Germany (7.6GW), Italy (3.3GW) and France (1.2GW). The top three non-European PV markets were China (at least 3.5GW and possibly as much as 4.5GW), the US (3.2GW) and Japan (2.5GW).
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