Customer-sited solar could hit 2.2 TW in 2050 - BloombergNEF, Schneider Electric

Customer-sited solar is an under-exploited, but a promising market that could help power some 167 million households and 23 million businesses across the world by 2050, research firm BloombergNEF and energy solutions company Schneider Electric SE (EPA:SU) say in their joint report.

With carefully designed policies, on-site solar could generate some 2.2 TW by 2050, up from 0.2 TW installed by end-2020, the report “Realizing the Potential of Customer-Sited Solar” has found. China, the US and India are projected to be the largest markets for customer-sited solar by mid-century, the researchers say.

Going solar is already a sound investment decision in some markets, mainly thanks to a combination of declining costs of solar technology, shorter payback periods and government incentives.

The research points to Australia as the market with the shortest payback period for household solar investors -- calculated at less than five years in 2021 -- which helped the country install over 2.5 GW of residential solar in 2020 alone.

The researchers have recommendations for markets where customer-sited solar has not yet become a positive business case, calling on policy makers to consider incentivising the adoption, craft policies that focus on solar during new building construction and spur adoption of energy storage and flexibility once the solar penetration exceeds a certain threshold.

The BloombergNEF-Schneider Electric report also features a section on the market development in Australia, Spain, France and the US states of California and New Jersey. The full report can be found in the following link.

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!