Global Solar Installations Advanced 20% In 2013 2nd Quarter

September 28th, 2013 by Adam Johnston

World-wide solar installations advanced by 20% in the second quarter of 2013.

PV Tech noted a recent study from IHS which said second quarter installations reached 8.5 GW, compared to first quarter results of 7.1 GW.

Image Credit: Solar Panels via Shutterstock

Increased margins, and prices, along with strong end markets provided underlying support, IHS said.

“This is the highest revenue since the fourth quarter of 2011 and even exceeded the IHS prediction of US$7.0 billion. As we had anticipated at the end of last year, the second quarter of 2013 marked the turnaround of global module markets,” said IHS principal solar analyst Stefan de Haan.

The IHS report came out at the same time as strong US second quarter numbers were released last week. US Solar Insights Report pointed to 832 MW of new solar PV installations, the second best on record. However, dropping business installations (declining by 11% last quarter) and policy concerns at various state levels dimmed some of the good news. Depending on various global macro-economic, policy, and regulatory matters, third quarter numbers (July until September) will likely give a glimpse on the overall 2013 picture.

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Tags: 2013 2nd Quarter Solar Installations, Global Solar Installations, Global Solar Markets, IHS, IHS Global Solar Installations 2013 Report, US solar installations

About the Author

Adam Johnston Is currently studying at the School of the Environment Professional Development program in Renewable Energy from the University of Toronto. Adam graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a three-year B.A. combined major in Economics and Rhetoric, Writing & Communications. Adam also writes for Solar Love and also owns his own part time tax preparation business. His eventual goal is to be a cleantech policy analyst, and is currently sharpening his skills as a renewable energy writer. You can follow him on Twitter @adamjohnstonwpg or at www.adammjohnston.wordpress.com.

JamesWimberley

It´s worth remembering that the quality of the data is getting worse. When the PV market was dominated by Germany, so were the data: generated by an efficient bureaucracy applying a simple and standardises scheme of registration which PV owners had to follow to enjoy above-market FITs. Lokk at it now. Even in Germany, the FIT is so low that some plug-and-play solar is going in unregistered. Of the countries that have replaced Germany as leaders, only Japan has the same level of organisation. The USA market is fragmented, so the national data are late. China and India are still poor countries with inefficient ground-level bureaucracies. As PV spreads to Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Saudi Arabia …, the only good source will come to be the sales reports of quoted PV firms. But this is not a very concentrated industry, and the sysnthesis wil be incomplete.
Ivor O’Connor

While tracking down the sources backwards I get:

-1) http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/18/us-solar-installations-surged-quarter-2-2013/
-2) http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data

Now at the SEIA I see there are lots of social media flavors but no RSS feed? I don’t do social media willingly. (Unless I can’t find a gun in which case I raise my hands and give up.) Surely a big organization like the SEIA has RSS?!?!