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Solar Industry Has a Record Year, but Expecting to Climb Much Higher in 2010

March 31, 2010 By 10 Comments
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The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) released figures yesterday showing that the global solar photovoltaic industry had a record year in 2009. But it is expecting a lot from 2010 as well.

EPIA reported that global installed capacity increased to 20GW last year, an increase of 6.4GW. It is expecting another increase of at least 40% in total installed capacity in 2010.

The largest global market continued to be Germany, which has a total capacity of almost 9GW now, one third of which was installed in 2009. Despite cutting feed-in tariffs for solar in 2010, it is still suspected to be the leader by the end of the year.

Italy, which is working on completing the largest solar PV farm in the world this year, came in at number two worldwide in 2009. It had a total of about 700MW of capacity last year. EPIA expects a lot of growth in its market this year due to its “conto energia” incentives.

Japan rounded out the top three with an installed capacity of 484MW. As with the other leaders, it is also expected to continue its growth at a rapid pace in 2010 due to much government support for the industry.

The US was just behind Japan with 475MW of capacity. It also grew a lot in 2009 and is expected to continue growing fast in 2010.

Basically, worldwide, the solar industry is expected to grow substantially in the coming years. The EPIA is expecting that global installed capacity will increase 50%, to 30GW, by 2014

Of course, much of this depends on government support for the industry. Will governments around the world help to continue this rapid growth trend? Will we hit 30GW by 2014? Will we perhaps even blow past that? We will see. For now, EPIA’s estimate looks like a good one.

Image Credit: Voice0Reason via flickr under a CC license

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About Zachary Shahan

If you couldn't guess, I spend most of my time on CleanTechnica and Planetsave. I'm the director/editor of both sites and am a little obsessed with them. I'm also Publishing Services Manager at Important Media, which means that I do everything I can to support other Important Media writers, editors, and directors (as well as the network as a whole) in the good work they are engaged in. You can also find my written work on Scientific American, Reuters, Change.org, and most of the sites in the Important Media network. For a full list of my author pages on sites around the internet, or to connect with me on common social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com

  • Dr.Nuthakki Radhakrishna

    Let us first change our habits –RISE EARLY AND SLEEP EARLY .Change the opening and closing times of the day according to the sunrise and sunset and thus use the sunlight to its maximum . We will save a minimum of 5 to 10 % enrgy thus required for lighting the dark nights.

    A survey has to be done on the availability of the sunlight across the world and production of solar energy must be increased with a concerted effort where the availability is more in duration of the day and the year. These solar farms must be internationally assisted with technolgy transfer and aid from the offenders of the climate change or soft loans. The clean energy produced and thus lowering the need of the energy from fossil fuels any where in the world is beneficial to the total world.

  • Motsatt

    @ J.P. Ouellette

    You’re right when you say solar panels are mostly made of Silicon Oxide witch we have in abundance. But that does not mean rare earth metals are not needed in the manufacturing process to make the panels work.

    http://tinyurl.com/qu254h

    http://tinyurl.com/yek2p49

    There is loads more information if you care to search for it.

    Not to crush your dreams but we need to be realistic to survive the upcomming energy Cataclysm, and can’t take any big chances in research development. I am a global warming sceptic but that doesn’t matter because if climate change was true, it would still be a drop in the ocean compared to what we can expect when the oil era ends. And there is reason to be afraid because the end of our industrialized modern world is going to be hell on earth.

    Thats why we don’t give our money to Al Gore and rather use it on research development. Sorry to say it greenies. But even if AGW was a real worry, all green solutions I have heard about sucks!

    If your happy and you know it clap your hands, said Jesus. :)

  • J.P. Ouellette

    To Motsatt above,

    You are wrong. The vast majority of solar cells are made from Silicon Oxide as the principal semiconducting material. Far from being a rare earth metal, it is in fact one of the most abundant materials on earth. The price per kilo continues to fall. Currently it is around $30 U.S. Solar/wind is absolutely a sustainable solution in the western world in the short run.

    To Joe and Dave above,

    You are right. Cost is an issue. A typical 4kW grid-tied PV system costs about $30K installed with a payback time of anywhere from 7-10 yrs. depending on the available solar radiation. However, people routinely spend more than that on home improvements such as decks, additions, etc. that generate no revenue at all. In fact, they cost more over time due to maintenance requirements. People also spend more money than that for things that DEPRECIATE such as cars, luxury items, etc. When was the last time you heard someone ask what the payback time was going to be for the SUV they were about to buy?

  • Motsatt

    Solar panels ey?

    To make those you need rare earth metals. China exports 95 % of what the rest of the world uses of the scarce metals, but are planning to cut down exports gradualy before they end it completely in 2012, because they only have enough for national demand.

    And that is bad news not only for solar but also windmills, cellphones, computers and other electronics.

    So solar/wind is not a sustainable solutions in the western world in the short run.

  • http://GlobalPatriot.com Global Patriot

    Encouraged to see the rapid growth in solar energy, but still feel that the United States should be at the top of the list. It’s a sad commentary on our politicians that there remains so much resistance to clean energy in the halls of Congress.

  • http://solar.calfinder.com/blog Taylen

    sad to see that Spain just fell off the radar…! but i guess it’s good to see other countries stepping up instead!

  • Doug

    Joe, it is all about money.

    Every month, the cost of electricity goes up and the cost of solar power goes down.

    Today, it takes 8-12 years to break-even on a solar roof. However, next year it might fall to 7-10 years. The year after that, 6-8 years….

    Once a system is released that can, with a low-interest loan from a bank, be installed and immediately pay for itself, every person in the country will be screaming for it.

    That day is coming…soon…but it is not today.

  • Dave brown

    I think you’ve meant that the annual incremental would be 30GW, not installed capaicity. If we’re at 20GW now and did over 6GW in 2009, 30GW wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

  • Dave

    There’s nothing political about the costs. Costs are the #1 reason why we don’t all have solar panels on our roofs. It’s a very big investment…

  • Joe Piervincenti

    It amazes me that as a human society, a global village, we’re not taking more advantage of solar power. There is simply no case that can be made against it. Sure tooling up will cost money but what doesn’t? Look at the garbage we drive, the shoddy workmanship of cars and houses, and the poor quality of so much these days. We talk about costs. What better way to end these outrageous utility bills than to capitalize on solar power. Will the electric companies be affected? So be it. They’ve affected everyone else for so many decades that now they can step aside. End the political case for utilities and give us solar.

    …Joe Piervincenti…

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