Global Solar Power Industry 2018

The year 2017 was a record year for solar power. Dominated primarily by China, the industry installed 98.9 gigawatts of new capacity in 2017. The total global solar power additions in 2017 went up by nearly 30 percent. While the market still fell short of analysts’ expectations that it will finally reach 100 GW. Nevertheless, the rapidly falling prices of solar power have continued to boost this energy source's competitiveness as compared to others. This growing competitiveness of solar power is, in fact, one of the biggest factors driving the success story of solar power within the energy sector. It is surprising to know that in 2016, the 800 MW Sheikh Maktoum Solar Park Phase 3 in the United Arab Emirates became the world's lowest solar supply contract, priced at 2.44 US Cents per kWh.

China has already connected over 35 GW to the grid as of 2016. This was a steep 128 percent increase over the 15.1 GW the country added in 2015. This strong growth has made China emerge as a leader in the global solar power industry, followed by the United States. In 2017, China installed 52.8 GW, an increase of over 50 percent again from 2016. In 2016, the US installed around 15 GW of solar power, as compared to only 7.5 GW in 2015. In 2017, the US installed capacity went down slightly to reach 11.8GW. The US market declined by 20 percent from 2016.

It is expected that by the end of 2022, the global solar power capacity would reach 871 GW. It is also expected that Asian markets, especially China, Japan, and India, will account for more than 20 percent of the market by 2022. Europe and North America are also expected to together account for 28 percent by 2022.

This research analyzes the Global Solar Power Industry 2018 in this in-depth offering. The report begins with an overview of solar power and the technologies associated with solar power such as parabolic trough, central receiver/solar tower, parabolic dish, passive and active technologies are discussed in the report as well as the associated costs of solar power technology. The impact of solar power on the consumer energy industry is also analyzed in the report.

We analyze the global solar photovoltaic industry through an industry overview, benefits of photovoltaics, market profile, market size, regulatory impacts as well as concerns over silicon supply and how it impacts the global solar PV industry.

Marketing and economizing solar power by connecting to the grid is analyzed.

Key solar power markets analyzed in this report include Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, development of solar power in the European Union, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, UK, and the US. We also give an overview of solar power in Africa. A total of over 20 markets are analyzed in the report.

The growth of concentrated solar power has been phenomenal in recent years and we analyze the global market for concentrated solar power in the report. We include an industry overview, industry size, power generation statistics from CSP, key markets and their installed capacities as well as industry investments.

Moving on to the analysis of the major industry players, we analyze 30 players in the industry through a business segment profile, financial analysis, and a SWOT analysis. Companies analyzed include players such as First Solar, Aleo Solar, SunPower Corporation, SolarWorld AG, China Sunergy, and many others.