UK Passes Spain In Utility Scale Application
The UK has now leapfrogged over Spain to become the world's fifth largest market for utility-scale solar projects behind only USA, China, Germany and India. This news in figures released today by utility solar authority Wiki-Solar follows the recent disclosure that total UK solar capacity has topped 5 GW, when domestic, industrial and utility-scale installations are all included.
The latest national figures also show other countries rising dramatically in the world utility-scale solar league tables. Chile has now connected its first projects and joins the list at number 15. Its 3GW pipeline will take it higher in coming months. South Africa and Japan are competing to become the next entrant to the top ten, thanks to substantial backlogs.
The installed capacity of utility-scale power plants in the leading countries at the end of June was
The top twenty markets account for 97% of the world's utility-scale solar
The UK's climb above Spain had been predicted back in April[4], "but the big question is whether changes to incentives will bring this rise to a grinding halt", says Wiki-Solar's Philip Wolfe. The government recently proposed[5] withdrawing solar power from the Renewables Obligation, which has supported most of the large installations in recent years.
This is the latest in a series of what insiders see as assaults on the utility-scale PV sector. "The industry has bounced back each time", says Wolfe, "so it would be premature to say this is the end of the road." Developers have been uncharacteristically reticent to comment on future prospects. "Maybe they are awaiting the outcome of the lawsuit against the government[6]; maybe they judge the new Contracts for Difference[7] will provide adequate incentive; or perhaps they are already shutting up shop and moving to more favourable markets" he concludes.
A sign of the rapid progress of the sector worldwide is that countries now need 100MW of installed capacity to break into the world's top twenty. Just 18 months ago it needed only 20MW.