SolarPower Europe expects global solar demand to hit 100 GW in 2017

Annual global solar installations will for the first time reach 100 GW in 2017, according to estimates of trade body SolarPower Europe.

This will represent an increase of over 30% compared to 2016, when 76.6 GW were added to the grid. China will account for more than half of the market this year as it is expected to install over 50 GW after adding around 42 GW in the first nine months of 2017 for a 45% jump in annual installations from 34.5 GW last year.

European demand is also expected to increase after contracting last year. Europe is seen to connect at least 7.5 GW to the grid in 2017, a rise of about 10% from 2016, when installations dropped 20% to 6.7 GW.

Thomas Doering, policy advisor and analyst in SolarPower Europe's market intelligence team, noted that the average prices in German solar auctions have dropped by almost 50% to EUR 0.0491 (USD 0.0571) per kWh in two and a half years, and in Spain solar recently secured 4 GW in the country's tender.

The organisation's chief executive James Watson urged European policymakers to raise their solar ambitions and called for an EU renewable energy target of at least 35% by 2030.

Earlier this week, Bernreuter Research forecast that photovoltaic (PV) capacity installations in 2017 will rise by roughly 30% over the 74 GW the world added last year, arriving somewhere between 95 GW and 97 GW.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.163)

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