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Continental Europe instigated the worldwide solar revolution, with Germany as the frontrunner for solar installations across the residential, commercial and utility scale markets. However in recent years, the European market has slowed down, allowing other growing markets such as China and the United States to surpass Europe in terms of amount of PV installed per year. What’s more the United Kingdom has seen a growth spurt in the amount of solar PV installed, putting a slight dent in Europe’s overall average yearly solar growth. Leading solar investment fund, Foresight Group, sees continued growth for UK market under the new CfD scheme.
The recent exponential growth of PV in the UK does not appear to be slowing down. According to Mr. Piňeiro, “It is generally the incentive schemes that have driven the rapid expansion of PV markets. The UK in particular first introduced its FiT regime in 2010 which was subsequently replaced by the prevailing ROC regime, and these two incentive programmes have proven to be very successful in stimulating investment and growth of the PV market.”
What does this solar market boom in the UK mean for their position within the global solar market? Mr. Piňeiro states, “We don’t expect China and the United States to create ‘solar turmoil’ within the European market. There will definitely be some players who are active in continental Europe and also in the United Kingdom, but the competition will remain the same as in other sectors.”
Interested in learning more about utility scale solar markets, solar asset management and the operation and maintance of PV systems, consider attending our Solar Asset Management North America (1-2 April, San Francisco) or our Solar Asset Management Europe (13-14 October, Milan) event.
