OVERVIEW - Utility-scale PV capacity heading towards 100 GW this year

As expected, figures published earlier this month show that global utility-scale PV capacity reached 60 GW in 2015, and looks to be heading towards 100 GW this year.

Europe losing ground as grid parity approaches

Just four short years ago, over 66% of the world’s total utility-scale capacity was in Europe. That figure has now slipped under 25% with only 13% of 2015’s new capacity being installed in the continent. The reasons are clear from the way in which the historical powerhouses of Germany, Spain and Italy have been losing market share to China, the USA, India and more recently Japan.

Only the UK has bucked the trend, and it too is expected to start sliding back down the table, when a string of recent legislative changes bite later this year.

Leading new and imminent entrants

Developments lower down the list are just as interesting. In 2014 there were 33 countries with any utility-scale plants operating. This number increased by 50% to 49 countries in 2015.

The leading new entrant was Honduras entering the table at number 17 with an impressive 366 MW of utility-scale capacity. This has the capacity to produce 15% of the country’s annual electricity demand. Other notable new entrants include Brazil, Sri Lanka and Jordan.

Other nations are queuing up to join the list with first projects due to be connected in the coming year or so. These include Iran, Myanmar, Vietnam and Jamaica.

Top states and provinces

Just as deployment of solar power stations is very uneven from country to country, so too are there huge variations within countries. Most of the USA’s capacity, for example, is concentrated in just four states. Overall there are 14 states, provinces or German laender with enough capacity to match the top 10 countries.

The leader is California with 6 GW – if it were a country, it would be ranked #3 – equivalent to over 5% of its electricity demand. The next US state is North Carolina; perhaps surprisingly ahead of Arizona and Nevada. There are six Chinese provinces in this list, led now by Gansu. The only European qualifier is Brandenburg, just behind Ontario, Canada. Finally the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat have also reached 1 GW of cumulative capacity.

Other recent utility-scale PV news

We end as usual with our regular monthly look at interesting and new developments in January and February:

There is a rash of new projects being commissioned in the Philippines ahead of March’s feed-in tariff deadline. Probably the largest by the end of February was the 100-MW plant in Tinampa.

Senegal is building its first utility solar projects due to be commissioned in 2016 and 2017, and Djibouti has announced two large-scale projects.

As mentioned above, Iran has now joined the ever growing group of Middle Eastern countries proposing to install new solar capacity and so prolong their fossil fuel reserves.

Source of data

All the details in these posts are based on the Wiki-Solar Database of some 5,500 utility-scale PV solar projects around the world. Unless otherwise stated, capacities are expressed in terms of the AC output of the plant, and ‘utility-scale’ is defined as projects of 4 MWAC and over.

About the author:

Philip Wolfe has been in renewables since the 1970’s when he was founder Chief Executive of BP Solar. He led companies in the PV sector until the early 2000’s. Since then he has undertaken more broadly-based roles in renewable and community energy. His book on utility-scale solar was published in 2012.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!