Rapid growth in the Spanish photovoltaic (PV) market in 2007 will challenge the US as the world's third largest PV market in 2007, according to Solarbuzz.
The Spanish market has grown rapidly over the past 12 months, rising from just 35 megawatts (MW) in 2005 to 110MW in 2006. This growth has been a function of the Royal Decree 436/2004 Law which set up the original Feed In tariff structure and currently includes direct incentives for solar electricity of up to €0.44/kWh (US$0.59/kWh) paid for 25 years.
According to Solarbuzz's list of Spanish PV projects in the pipeline, there are no less than 230MW under development in the large system size category. The 2007 Spanish market size is now estimated to fall in the range of 200-280MW, the wide range being a function of the pace of installation of these large projects, some individually between 10-20MW in size.
Meanwhile, the US PV market is also set on its own impressive expansion path, Solarbuzz noted. The US market reached a size of 140MW in 2006. With strong growth in both California and New Jersey, together with large projects under construction in Nevada and Colorado, the latest forecast for the US market size is between 204-235MW in 2007. The US market will deliver very strong performance in the commercial, government and utility segments in 2007, the research firm indicated.
Besides the competition on third ranking, Solarbuzz indicated that Germany will remain the world number one market in 2007, with Japan currently projected to hold number two position.
The pace of growth in each region will be a function of the fiscal and regulatory regimes, the state of the key customer segments, market pricing, and the pace of transitioning large order books in both regions into completed installations. The status of the downstream PV business chain structure, volumes and individual PV companies provides further signposts to the future of these two important regions.
Article translated by Esther Lam and edited by Ricky Morris
