Asia-Pacific solar installations could hit over 17GW in second half of 2014

Having the two largest markets in the world, China and Japan helps, but according to market research firm NPD Solarbuzz the Asia-Pacific region that includes India, Australia and Thailand is expected to support PV market demand of around 17.2GW in the second half of 2014.

According to NPD Solarbuzz, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to account for almost 60% of global solar PV demand in the later half of the year, with 95% of that demand from these key countries. 

Ray Lian, senior analyst at NPD Solarbuzz said: “China, Japan, India, Australia and Thailand are forecast to rank in the top 10 global PV markets. China and Japan are dominating demand, with about half of all new PV capacity added this year.”

The latest NPD Solarbuzz Asia-Pacific Major PV Markets Quarterly report indicates that around 80% of PV demand in China in the second half of the year would be ground-mounted projects, despite the National Energy Administration recently announcing new policies to support development of distributed generation PV projects, especially rooftop projects and previous targets set earlier in the year. 

With respect to Japan, the market research firm expects demand to be over 5GW in the second half of the year, noting the pipeline of approved PV projects in the country stands at 59GW. 

“Falling PV system costs, together with high feed-in tariff rates, continue to provide attractive PV project economics within the Japanese PV market,” according to Holly Hu, analyst at NPD Solarbuzz. “While the Japanese government reviews the progress of the approved project pipeline, PV installations will continue to accelerate quickly, during the next few quarters.”

Recently, PV Tech reported on the cancellation of 1.82GW of projects in Japan by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, a division of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and confirmed to PV Tech. 

“The Indian government recently opened the bidding process for PV projects, under the country’s National Solar Mission Phase II Batch II; however, policy uncertainties have delayed solar PV demand in India for the past six months,” Hu said. “On a positive note, the Indian government recently avoided potential problems that may have arisen if anti-dumping duties had been imposed on imported Chinese silicon-based PV modules.”

With the largest surge in demand coming from China, the Asia-Pacific region will retain its leading position, according to NPD Solarbuzz.