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02 MARKET AND INDUSTRY TRENDS
Utilities in Australia also are facing major impacts from solar PV.
The country added more than 0.9 GW, ranking seventh globally
for new installations and ending the year with 5.1 GW – the
equivalent of one panel per inhabitant. 64 Australia’s market has
been predominantly residential, with rooftop systems on almost
16% of homes as of early 2016, although the commercial and
large-scale sectors started to take hold in 2015. 65 Grid-based
electricity consumption has fallen significantly in Eastern Australia
since 2009 thanks in part to the growth of solar PV, which has
eliminated afternoon “super peaks” in electricity demand. 66
Australia’s very low wholesale electricity prices and high retail
prices are encouraging a shift to solar PV with little incentive to
sell into the grid. As a result, there is a small but growing market
for storage, and several companies started rolling out affordable
options for homeowners in 2015. 67 Storage applications are
developing quickly in Australia as well as in several other
developed countries (e.g., Greece, Japan, Sweden) for on- and
off-grid applications, and in some developing countries (e.g.,
Bangladesh, India, Peru), particularly off-grid. 68 (p See Distributed
Renewable Energy chapter.)
Latin America and the Caribbean added an estimated 1.1 GW in
2015 to more than double regional capacity. 69 Chile installed over
0.4 GW, mostly in very large-scale projects, with a year-end total
exceeding 0.8 GW. 70 By some accounts, solar PV has become the
country’s cheapest source of electricity. 71 Honduras emerged as
an important market and, along with Chile, was among the top
15 countries worldwide for new installations. The country added
nearly 0.4 GW thanks to a generous FIT and to regulatory certainty
that set it apart from its neighbours. 72 (p See Figure 17.) Mexico and
Brazil experienced delays – due to low oil prices and anticipation
of the Energy Transition Law in Mexico, and to Brazil’s difficult
economic climate and insufficient transmission capacity – but
both countries plus Peru had highly competitive auctions in
2015 and early 2016. 73 Throughout the region, grid access and
financing remained key challenges to growth. 74
In developing and emerging economies, obtaining financing –
and at affordable rates – is a common challenge; this is not the
case for competitive tenders, however. 75 In 2015, some of the
fastest growing markets were in Africa and the Middle East,
where deployment is driven by rapidly falling costs, good solar
resources, the desire to reduce energy imports, rapidly growing
energy demand and the need to expand energy access. 76 Although
the Middle East had relatively little capacity in operation at year’s
end, much was happening in the region. 77 Jordan and the United
Arab Emirates held tenders for solar PV in 2015 with record-low
bids, and launched several large projects. 78 Israel added 0.2 GW
for a total approaching 0.9 GW, and others developing projects
included Kuwait, the State of Palestine and Saudi Arabia. 79
Countries are turning to the sun across Africa as well, with projects
ranging from very small to large-scale, both on- and off-grid. 80
Leaders for new capacity were Algeria (adding almost 0.3 GW) and
South Africa (0.2 GW), which ended the year with 1.1 GW. 81 Egypt
has a burgeoning sector with increasing numbers of international
companies announcing plans to finance, develop and construct
up to 3 GW of solar PV projects. 82 Projects also were under way
in Djibouti, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria,
Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia, among others. 83 The global offgrid
solar PV market is estimated at USD 300 million annually,
with the strongest growth in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by
South Asia. 84 However, the African continent faces challenges as
it rapidly scales up solar PV installations, including a shortage
of skills necessary for installation, operation and maintenance. 85
Around the world, the number and size of large-scale plants
continued to grow. 86 By early 2016, at least 120 (up from 70 a
year earlier) solar PV plants of 50 MW and larger were operating
in at least 23 countries, with Australia, Denmark, Guatemala,
Honduras, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the Philippines and Uruguay all
joining the list during the year. 87 Latin America saw the fastest
growth, with the number of plants ≥50 MW increasing from 2 to
10. 88 The world’s 50 biggest plants as of February 2016 reached
cumulative capacity exceeding 13.5 GW. 89 At least 33 of these
came online (or achieved full capacity) in 2015 and early 2016,
including the US Solar Star project (750 MW) and, by some
accounts, phase two of China’s Longyangxia hybrid hydropower–
solar PV plant (boosting the total to 850 MW). 90
The market for concentrating PV (CPV) is young and remains
small, but there is interest in niche markets due greatly to higher
efficiency levels in locations with high direct normal insolation
(DNI) and low moisture. 91 CPV includes an optical system to focus
large areas of sunlight onto each cell and usually is combined
with a tracking system. 92 After a number of installations came
online during 2012–2014, many projects were cancelled, and little
new capacity was added during 2015. 93 By end-2015, global CPV
capacity totalled 360 MW, most of which is high-concentration
systems. 94
Solar PV plays a substantial role in electricity generation in some
countries. During 2015, solar PV met 7.8% of electricity demand
in Italy, 6.5% in Greece and 6.4% in Germany. 95 By year’s end,
Europe had enough solar PV capacity to meet an estimated
3.5% of total consumption (up from 0.3% in 2008) and 7% of
peak demand. 96 An estimated 22 countries (including several in
Europe as well as Australia, Chile, Israel, Japan and Thailand) had
enough solar PV capacity at end-2015 to meet more than 1% of
their electricity demand. 97 By the end of 2015, China had achieved
100% electrification in part because of significant off-grid solar
PV systems installed since 2012. 98 Global capacity in operation at
year’s end was enough to produce close to 275 TWh of electricity
per year. 99
64