Mercom predicts another strong year for solar power globally

US-based researcher Mercom Capital Group has revised upwards its global solar installation forecast for 2015 to 57.4 GW mainly on China revising its installation goals.
Mercom's forecast for solar installations in India for 2015 now stands at greater than 2,000 MW due to positive developments in Tamil Nadu, Mercom said in a statement.
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) has signed PPAs (power purchase agreements) in the range of 400 MW-1,000 MW, it added.
The commissioning of these projects is scheduled to be between September, 2015 and March, 2016.
"We are revising our forecast upwards since our previous update due to positive news coming out of China along with revised installation goals," Raj Prabhu, CEO and Co-Founder of Mercom Capital Group.

China has revised its solar installation target yet again by 20 per cent to almost 18 GW for 2015.

Mercom expects China, Japan and the US to account for approximately 60 per cent of global solar installations this year.
"With the specific steps put forward by the National Energy Administration (NEA) and the 5 GW already installed in the first quarter, 17.8 GW is a more achievable target this year.
"Omission of a specific installation target for distributed solar projects, which contributed to missing the 2014 goal, is a positive," Prabhu added.
China's solar installation goals were revised numerous times last year, and a similar trend can be expected this year if there are implementation issues on the ground, the statement said.

Mercom forecasts Japanese solar installations in 2015 to be approximately 10 GW. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Commerce (METI) announced feed-in tariff (FiT) cuts in March.
As per the statement, solar PV installations in Germany continue on a downward trend with only 400 MW installed in the first four months of 2015 as compared to 622 MW installed during the same time last year.
Germany's forecast has been reduced to 1,300 MW for 2015.
Mercom Capital Group, Llc, is a global communications and consulting firm focused exclusively on clean energy and financial communications.