After two years of market and industry consolidation, the PV market grew again in the 2013, according to the International Energy Agency in its new report Snapshot of global PV in 1992-2013.
In total, about 36.9 GW of PV capacity was installed in 2013 in the 24 countries of the IEA PV Power System Programme (PVPS) plus the other major markets (2012, 29.4 GW; 2011, 29.2 GW; 2010, 16.7 GW). This brought the total installed PV capacity in IEA PVPS countries to 123.2 GW, with another estimated 10.8 GW of capacity installed in the other major PV countries.
After several years of rapid growth and a stabilisation in 2012, the PV market grew in 2013 to at least 36.9 GW. The Asia Pacific region represented around 59% of the global PV market in 2013. While Europe represented 59% of this global market in 2012, its market share fell to 28%, a consequence of a reduced market in Europe and a growing global PV market as a whole. The PV market in the Americas went above 5 GW for the first time. However, the most significant growth was in China, which saw the biggest capacity addition in 2013, with 11.3 GW of PV systems connected to the grid. The second largest market in 2013 was Japan with 6.9 GW, ahead of the USA, with 4.75 GW and finally the leading European market was Germany at 3.3 GW.
The annual PV contribution to electricity demand has passed the 1% mark in 15 countries, with Italy at the top with at least 7.8 % and the overall European PV contribution amounting to around 3% of Europe's electricity demand. Australia, Japan and Israel have also passed the 1% mark but larger consumers of electricity such as China or the USA will require more PV capacity to reach this threshold, the IEA report notes.
PV has become a major source of electricity extremely rapidly in several countries. The speed of its development stems from its unique ability to cover most market segments, says the IEA, from the very small individual systems for rural electrification to utility-size power plants (today above 250 MW).
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