IEA PVPS publishes its 19th “Trends in Photovoltaic Applications” report

After years of PV market development in Europe, 2013 has been a year of growth in Asia and America. In total, about 40 GW of PV capacity were installed in the IEA PVPS countries and the other major markets during 2013 (2012 and 2011: just below 30 GW). This raised the total installed capacity in IEA PVPS countries to close to more than 125 GW, with further estimates placing the total installed capacity in the world higher than 137 GW.

Asian countries now represent the first regional market for PV, with China and Japan representing 50% of all installations in 2013. American countries progressed while the market went down for the second year in a row in Europe. Asia installed 22.9 GW, Europe 11.2 GW and the Americas 5.3 GW.

Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) remain the dominant driver for PV market development with 74% of PV installations in 2013 having been underpinned by FiTs. However, for the first time, the share of distributed PV markets, where self-consumption was at least partially driving the market, rose to 55% in 2013. Tenders represented less than 4% of the world PV market in 2013.

In 17 countries, the annual PV contribution to electricity demand has passed the 1% mark, with Italy at the top with 7.6 % and Greece and Germany above 6%. The overall European PV contribution amounted to around 3% of Europe’s electricity demand while PV contribution to the global electricity demand reached 0.87% in 2013. Australia has also passed the 2% mark and Japan 1.5%. Larger consumers of electricity such as China or the USA will require more PV capacity to reach this threshold.

The PV industry produced close to 39 GW of modules in 2013, with a market slightly above that level and production capacities at 59 GW. The lowest prices of modules stabilized in 2013, while the highest prices continued to go down. In addition, the global turnover of the PV sector grew again in 2013 to 86 Billion USD (after a drop in 2012), due to market growth and price stagnation.

Finally, PV has extremely rapidly become a significant source of electricity in several countries worldwide. The speed of its development comes from its unique ability to cover most market segments, from the very small individual systems for rural electrification to utility-scale power plants (today above 300 MW in size). From the built environment to large ground-mounted installations, PV prevails as an energy source of choice, as a consequence of the various characteristics that make it suitable for most environments.

To download the full report, click here.