Figure 1. Scatec Solar’s 40 MW Linde solar plant, located in the Northern Cape region of South Africa, generates 90 million kWh annually, enough to cover the electricity needs of approximately 20 000 households. Image courtesy of Scatec Solar.
Figure 2. Solar power plant and Energy Vault gravitational storage in Sudan, powering the GLB Alfalfa Farm.
trajectory is highlighted across many dimensions. At first sight, the most impressive figure to emerge from the study might be that the global solar sector will enter the terawatt level by 2022, only four years after the 0.5 TW level was reached. Further milestones to expect in the next few years include solar reaching 700 GW by the end of 2020, and 1.2 TW by 2023. However, slightly faster growth had already been expected as of last year, before the arrival of COVID-19.
COVID-19’s impact on the global solar sector The Global Market Outlook presents the first results of a worldwide survey conducted in April by the Global Solar
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Council on the impacts of COVID-19 on the solar sector. Over 71% of polled solar businesses reported a decline in orders, of which six in 10 said that orders were down by up to 50%, and three in 10 experienced a decline of 50 - 90%. The effect of the pandemic on installation rates varies in different countries and segments, largely depending on how badly the countries suffered from COVID-19, and the response of governments. This year, new solar grid connections are expected to drop for the first time in many years. In SolarPower Europe’s medium scenario, new global installed capacities will decrease by 4% to 112 GW in 2020. Compared to the forecasting in last year’s Global Market Outlook, when SolarPower Europe projected as much as 144 GW of new solar, this represents a loss of 32 GW. Now it is of utmost importance that governments do not disregard renewables and solar power when developing economic stimulus packages. If the world is serious about meeting the Paris Agreement climate targets, solar deployments not only need to get back on their recent growth track, but the installation rate of solar – the lowest-cost and most versatile power generation technology – must increase much faster, in the short-term and mid-term.
Diversification of solar demand around the world In comparison, 2019 was a successful year for solar. Demand grew by 13% to 116.9 GW, and it would have increased further if the world’s largest market, China, had not continued its restructuring efforts, resulting in an even stronger drop in demand than the year before. India, the world’s third largest photovoltaic (PV) market, also declined for multiple reasons. One key takeaway from SolarPower Europe’s report is that global solar demand continues its diversification process.
