According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the growth of Asia, the United States, a few countries in Europe, South America and the Middle East have helped PV become the driving force behind the boom of renewable in last year.
According to statistics released by the agency, in 2018, about 94 GW of grid-connected photovoltaic projects were launched, accounting for more than half of all new renewable energy projects (171 GW). Renewable energy now accounts for more than one-third of the global installed capacity.
In 2018, China alone has added 45 GW of installed capacity, impacting the 145 GW mark of last year.
The PV has jumped from 386GW in 2017 to 480GW in 2018. This industry has continued to develop rapidly for several years while the installed capacity has increased year by year: 135GW in 2013, 173GW in 2014, 221GW in 2015 and 292GW in 2016.
The 45GW new PV project in China
Last year, 94GW of new PV projects had been added in global, of which 64GW was added in Asia (from 210GW to 274GW). It is clear that Asia has become the driving force for the development of the industry. According to data provided by the International Renewable Energy Agency, China (from 130GW to 175GW), Japan (from 29GW to 55GW), India (from 17GW to 26GW), South Korea (from 5.8GW to 7.8GW) and Pakistan (from 742MW to 1.5GW) are the fastest growing countries in 2017 and 2018.
In addition, the United States (from 42GW to 49GW), Europe (from 110GW to 119GW) and Australia (from 5.9GW to 9.76GW) were also steadily constructing the photovoltaic projects last year. Popular countries in Europe including Germany (from 42.3GW to 45.9GW), the Netherlands (from 2.9GW to 4.1GW), France (from 8.6GW to 9.4GW), Italy (from 19GW to 20GW) and Spain (from 4.72GW to 4.74GW) had also achieved varied growth in 2018.
Meanwhile, the projects have been added to the mainland and regions which have fallen behind, such as South America (from 3.4GW to 5.4GW) and Africa (from 3.7GW to 5.1GW), Eurasia (from 3.6GW to 5.6GW, mostly in Turkey) as well as the Middle East (from 2.07GW to 3.02GW). Besides, the International Renewable Energy Agency has listed Mexico (from 674MW to 2.5GW) and Brazil (from 1.09GW to 2.29GW) as the models of the 2018 PV project.
Global off-grid PV project has generated 2.9GW of power
Following the continuous growth of 2015 (1.5GW), 2016 (1.98GW) and 2017 (2.5GW), the off-grid PV project continued to grow in 2018, with a generation of 2.9GW.
Divided by the mainland and the region, the International Renewable Energy Agency listed Asia (from 1.36GW to 1.6GW) as a leader once again. Also, Africa (from 853MW to 938MW) ranked second, followed by the Middle East (from 156MW to 206MW), Central America, the Caribbean (from 88MW to 88.9MW) and South America (from 73MW to 81MW).
