Solar Capacity in Emerging Markets More than Tripled in Three Years

The growth is mainly attributed to low-priced equipment and raising awareness about the benefits of renewable energy in comparison to alternative energy sources.

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): The annual survey conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in 71 emerging market countries shows tremendous growth to solar-power generating capacities. The report was released during the BNEF Future of Energy Summit held November 28-29, 2017 in Shanghai, China.

The growth is mainly attributed to low-priced equipment and raising awareness about the benefits of renewable energy in comparison to alternative energy sources. The massive drop in photovoltaic module prices over the past several years has created opportunities for large-scale as well as small-scale installations across developing countries.

According to the report, a total of 34 giga-watts (GW) of new solar-power generating capacity came on stream in 2016. This is significantly higher by nearly 54% when compared with 22 GW which had come on stream in 2015. The cumulative solar capacity in the surveyed emerging market countries covering South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia has almost tripled over the past three years.

China recorded the strongest growth in capacity addition, accounting for 27 GW (79%) out of the totally added 32 GW of solar capacity in 2016. The country remained the world’s single largest market for clean energy development. However, the country reported $36.6 billion decline in investments in new projects over the previous year.

The second largest contributor was India, which added 4.2 GW during the year. A total of 14 countries including Brazil, Chile, Jordan, Mexico and Pakistan doubled their installed photovoltaic capacity in 2016. Solar accounted for 19% of all newly added power generation capacity during the year, significantly higher when matched with the 10.6% share recorded in 2015.