IEA PVPS Report: A Snapshot of Global Photovoltaic Markets 2018

Preliminary market numbers show that the PV market grew significantly in 2017.In total, at least 98 GW of PV capacity were installed in the IEA PVPS countries and in other major markets during 2017. The total installed capacity in the IEA PVPS countries and key markets has risen to 402 GW. These are the main outcomes of the latest IEA PVPS “Snapshot of Global Photovoltaic Market 2017” report.

Solar PV technology continued to expand in 2017 thanks to the rapid development in China, India and some emerging markets. In the meantime the US and Japanese market went down, while Europe experienced a slow rebirth partially hidden by the decline of the UK market. In other words, the global PV market outside of China grew by 4 GW to 45 GW while China drove the global numbers up to at least 96 GW. This slow growth outside of China composes a different landscape for the PV market that global numbers are showing. In the same way, the distributed PV market grew significantly for the first time since 2011, with 38 GW compared to 19 GW one year before. But again, a large part of that growth came from China only.

This report aims at providing a preliminary snapshot of the global PV market evolution during the last year.