Worldwide Solar Panel Production Doubles in 2008
This is exciting news for potential PV panel consumers. Worldwide PV panel production increased to 7.5 GW (gigawatts). That’s up 80% from 2007.
According to a December 2008 article by PV-Tech.org, this news will prove less exciting for the PV manufacturing industry, however, since worldwide installations in 2008 were only 3.8 GW. That’s nearly 100% more panels produced than installed! This trend is supposed to top out in 2009 at 168% more panels produced than installed, with an estimated 4.2 GW installed.
What does this mean for the consumer? It means that the traditional price per watt (around $4.00) should plummet to around $2.50 or so, according to Dr. Henning Wicht, Senior Director and Principal Photovoltaics Analyst at iSuppli Corporation. Those are significant savings for anyone looking to install a residential solar system because it will lessen the amount of time before a newly installed system pays for itself.
Europe accounts for nearly 60% of installed PV energy production worldwide, led by Spain. Spain’s energy harvest increased nearly five-fold from 2007 to 2008. But China leads the manufacturing sector with 2.4 GW produced. Europe is not far behind China , with 1.9 GW manufactured. Japan ranks third at 1.2 GW produced.
Where’s the US? According to Green Tech Media, the new US Government policy on solar power will likely increase production facilities as it has in Germany and Japan, both countries with green energy incentives. At the beginning of 2009, the US had 29 facilities nationwide, and only three states are capable of manufacturing over 100 MW of PV panels. By 2012, this article estimates that there will be nine states producing that much wattage. If the predictions are right, the US might make the list of top PV panel manufacturing by 2012, but would be a long way from catching other countries to top the list, assuming most of the current leaders grow similarly.
US installation statistics are hard to find, but according to the US Department of Energy (DOE), the United States generates about 1% of its energy needs from solar. To view a sobering pie graph of how the US generates it’s energy, check out page 10 of this DOE report.
Photo Credit: BBC News
Posted on October 9th in Solar News by Craig.
October 10th, 2009 at 7:07 am
It’s not 1%. That would mean huge installed base. The US is a small PV market.
It’s 1% out of the 7% that are renewable. This means 0,07%
October 13th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Thanks for the clarification Jacob, you’re right. I appreciate it.