Global solar installations to touch 57 GW in 2015

Installations of solar power generation capacities worldwide are expected to touch 57.4 GW this year, a growth of 25-30 per cent over last year.
"Despite deteriorating macro-economic conditions in China and the recent downtrend in solar stocks, the market is on pace to reach about 57 GW this year," Mercom Capital Group CEO and co-founder Raj Prabhu said.
Mercom Capital group is a global clean energy communications and consulting firm.
"Since Mercom's last quarterly update, China released its first half installation numbers, which showed 7.73 GW of installed PV, much higher than the 3 GW installed last year during the same time period," Mercom said today.

This is a good sign, as Chinese installations are forecast to account for 30 per cent of global solar installations in 2015, it said.
"However, macro-economic conditions have changed drastically in China over the past three months even though we have not seen an effect on the solar market directly," it added.

Overall, strong demand has been reported for the second half of this year giving us confidence that China could install 17 GW in 2015. However, curtailment and delayed tariff payments could be a negative factor, it further said.
Chinese solar associations, meanwhile, are proposing an increase in national solar installation goals from 100 GW to 200 GW, it added.

Japan's solar market is set to install about 9.5 GW in 2015 and is expected to decline thereafter, it said.
"According to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA), domestic solar module shipments in the first quarter (FY 2015) fell sharply 41 per cent quarter-over-quarter (QOQ) and about 14 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, after the first cut in the feed-in tariff (FiT)," it said.