PV Solar Market in the Global Energy Industry

Apr 12, 2015. | By: José González

38.4 gigawatts (GW) of newly-installed solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity worldwide (up from 30 GW in 2012) led to a global cumulative installed capacity of 138.9 GW¹. It is an amount capable of producing at least 160 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity every year, sufficient to cover the annual power supply needs of over 45 million households.

However, according to the 2014 Global Status Report² the renewable energy provided an estimated 19% of global final energy consumption in 2012. Despite their strong growth, still only 1.2% of the global consumption was covered by modern sources of renewables: wind, PV solar, biomass and geothermal power.

Estimated Renewable Energy Share of Global Final Energy Consumption, 2012

Source: Renewables 2014 Global Status Report - REN21.

If we look at the production side we see an estimated 22.1% of global electricity was supplied by renewables in 2013 and 0.7% was from PV solar market.

Estimated Renewable Renewable Energy Energy Share of Global Electricity Production, End-2013

Source: Renewables 2014 Global Status Report - REN21.

There is still a lot of work to do in order to unlock the enormous potential of solar PV but its benefits for society are more obvious than ever, delivering clean, safe, affordable and decentralised electricity to people.

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