In 2012, the global solar market was affected by incentive policy changes in various countries. Now such incentive programs are mostly aimed at pushing steady market growth until grid parity is achieved.
In Europe, solar PV installations generally slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2012, but the US saw installations surge.
According to figures gathered by Digitimes Research, Germany added 1.4GW of new solar installations in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the accumulated new installations for 2012 were 7.6GW. The market is expected to grow steadily and in 2013, the new installation target is set at 4-4.5GW.
Italy added 0.12GW of new solar installations in the fourth quarter while the 2012 total new installations were 3.1GW. The subsidy program in Italy is aiming to increase the percentage of electricity generated for self-use and the 2013 new installation target is set at 1-2GW.
In the US, due to increasing public projects, non-residential solar PV system installations surged in the second half of 2012. The total new installations added in the fourth quarter were 1.6GW in the US, accounting for more than half of the total new installations added in 2012. The US market is expected to install 5GW of new solar PV systems in 2013.
Due to strong demand in US and Japan markets, Europe- and US-based solar firms reported rising shipments in the fourth quarter. First Solar, SunPower and Conergy saw shipments increase due to rising demand in the US market. However, Europe-based REC and SolarWorld saw shipments fall due to reliance on the Europe market.
The PV inverter market has been experiencing a surge of demand, and due to profitability, many China-based firms have entered the market. However, this has been causing the product prices to fall.
