The global solar PV market is expected to bounce back from slower growth in 2018 with a return to form in 2019 that will see double-digit growth in the range of 25% and total solar installations nearing 130 gigawatts (GW), according to analysts IHS Markit. Global business information provider IHS Markit published its latest PV Installations Tracker last week which predicts that the global solar PV market will see growth of 25% in 2019 and install a total of 129 GW worth of new solar capacity. This is up slightly on the 123 GW the company predicted would be installed in 2019 back at the end of December. The European solar market is expected to see continued strong growth in 2019 after the conclusion of the region’s minimum import price on modules helped push 2018 growth to 23%, with IHS Markit expecting 2019 will see 19 GW installed, well up from the 12 GW installed in 2018. It’s worth noting that there remains no consensus on just how much solar was installed in 2018.
In late-January, Bloomberg New Energy Finance head of solar Jenny Chase declared that 2018 solar installations had breached the 100 GW barrier and would end up at around 109 GW. Conversely, Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables predicted that solar would only break through the 100 GW barrier in 2019 with an expected 103 GW. In early-March, SolarPower Europe — the region’s member-led solar trade association — announced that global solar installations reached 104.1 GW, while a month later, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) concluded that only 94 GW of solar was installed in 2018.
