Report says the global solar industry will install the equivalent of 5 large-scale nuclear plants by the end of the year

Oct 7, 2014 18:57 GMT  ·  By

This past October 6, market research-based business NPD Solarbuzz released a new report saying that, by the end of 2014, the world has high chances to install a total of 200GW worth of solar capacity.

Otherwise put, sun power appears to have an ever widening fanbase, something which can only come as good news given the urgency to limit climate change and global warming.

The NPD Solarbuzz figures

The folks behind this latest NPD Solarbuzz report say that, judging by how things are going, a whopping 19.5GW of solar capacity stand to be installed on a global scale during the 4th quarter of 2014.

Just to put things into perspective, it need be said that this figure represents the equivalent of the energy generating capacity of 5 large-scale nuclear power plants combined, and is greater than the capacity installed all throughout 2010.

It is said that, if the global solar power industry does in fact add 19.5GW of capacity during 2014's final quarter, this year's overall added sun energy capacity will be one of 50GW.

NPD Solarbuzz experts believe that, given this sudden interest in solar power, it will not be long until the industry announces investments in new manufacturing facilities especially designed to deal with the increase in the demand for photovoltaic installations.

“Global PV end-market demand continues to set new records, restoring investor confidence in the PV industry after several years of overcapacity and declining profits,” senior analyst Michael Barker said in a statement.

“Having been put on hold over the past six months, due mainly to trade-related uncertainties, record quarterly and annual shipment levels will prove crucial to investors that have been hesitant to commit to new capacity funds,” he went on to explain.

So, who's investing in solar?

This might come as a bit of a shock, seeing how it's chiefly made headlines because of its major air pollution crisis during these past few months, but it appears that it's China that stands to install the most sun power capacity in the months to come.

Thus, the NPD Solarbuzz report says that, judging by how things are going, this country has high chances to add as much as 7GW of solar capacity by the end of the year. When compared to the same period in 2013, this figure represents a 10% increase.

The US and Japan will too add an impressive amount of solar capacity until this year comes to an end. In fact, it is estimated that, together with China, these two countries will account for 70% of the new photovoltaic capacity deployed in 2014's fourth quarter.

As encouraging as the findings of this report might be, the fact of the matter is that there is plenty of work to do if the world is to even stand a chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the year.