Despite a stuttering European PV market its EPC contractors still enjoy a large share of the industry

Share

As the construction of large-scale solar PV installations in Europe becomes much less frequent, the continent’s solar companies have been able to draw from the experience they gathered in previous years to remain a global force in PV installations.

Wiki-Solar released the figures using data from about 50% of projects, as some companies – particularly Chinese – do not publish details of their EPC contractors. Therefore, this data does not present the full picture, but gives an idea of some of the global trends, although Chinese companies would be likely to feature more prominently if all of the data was available.

The big plus point on the list came for the stuttering European market, as even though the rate of PV capacity installation in Europe decreased dramatically, the continent had 16 of the top 30 utility-scale EPC contractors. In total, the European EPC contractors accounted for 5,938 capacity MWAC, with German company Juwi Solar highest on the list at number two. The United States had seven firms on the list, with a total capacity of 5,894 MWAC, predominantly propped up by First Solar who accounted for 3,217 MWAC.

“The leading European contractors have taken the experience they acquired when their home markets were booming, and are now active in emerging markets around the world,” said Wiki-Solar founder, Philip Wolfe. “Some of the prominent North American contractors are doing the same, though others have stuck mainly to their home market.”

This data is encouraging for the European companies, who are facing uncertain times in their home countries. During SolarPower Europe’s Solar Market Workshop in Brussels last month the general feeling was that GW-scale PV plants are unlikely to be developed in Europe in the near future.

However, during that workshop, emerging PV markets were highlighted as the places where European solar project developers could expand in the near term. The data released by Wiki-Solar backs up that assumption, as we see European EPC contractors maintaining a large presence in the market.

As India pushes for a dramatic increase in PV capacity, we are also likely to see more Indian contractors enter the list the next time that it is released, as mentioned by Wolfe.

Full table below:

Rank

EPC contractor

© wiki-solar.org

Projects number

Capacity MWAC

1

First Solar [US]

44

3,217

2

Juwi Solar [DE]

68

895

3

Swinerton Renewable Energy [US]

41

774

4

Enerparc [DE]

83

Popular content

757

5

SunEdison [US] (part of: MEMC)

43

680

6

SunPower Corporation [US] (inc. Sunray Renewable)

26

474

7

Activ Solar [AT]

11

466

8

< span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#262626;mso-ansi-language: EN-US;mso-fareast-language:DE">TBEA SunOasis [CN] (part of: TBEA)

8

440

9

Q-Cells [DE] (now: Hanwha Q.Cells)

18

409

10

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.

This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close