Netherlands third fastest growing solar market in Europe

Experts Solar Future: adapt more quickly to digitalisation and electrification

UTRECHT – The Netherlands is the third fastest growing solar market in Europe. Just like last year new installations will continue to grow over 50 percent in 2019, experts say. Though Europe is reclaiming its position in the PV market, countries and companies have to adapt more quickly to the digitalisation and electrification of the energy market, for instance in mobility, they state. Now China is taking the lead.

Based on the share of renewable energy The Netherlands are being bottom of the class in Europe, but in the growing solar market they are ahead of other countries, research by IHS Market shows. “In terms of growth rate they will be the third fastest growing country in Europe in 2019, after Spain and France, and more than 2 Gigawatts of new solar power will be installed,” says Sam Wilkinson, Associate Director for the Solar and Energy Storage Research group at IHS Markit Technology.

Double-digit growth

He is one of the keynote speakers during the 11th edition of The Solar Future NL conference, on June 13 in DeFabrique in Utrecht. Wilkinson will review the most important PV market trends in 2019 and discuss international impacting trends for the Dutch market.

IHS predicts global PV installations will return to double-digit growth this year and European PV demand will return to 2012 levels, the last year the continent dominated the solar market. Though in 2018 a global milestone of 103 Gigawatts new installed PV installations was reached, it was also the first year the amount of new installations grew less than 10 percent. That was due to declining demand caused by trade disputes and policy changes in two of the three top markets: China and the United States.