IHS Markit

In the past financial year, India missed its rooftop solar PV targets, although it did exceed those for both grid-connected ground-mounted and off-grid systems, reports the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Bridge to India believes the government’s rooftop targets have been set at the wrong level and that around 10 GW will be installed by 2022, rather than 40 GW.

The Gujarat state government has approved a 5 GW solar PV park, to be located in the Dholera Special Investment Region. The development of what will become the world’s largest such project when complete, is seen as “crucial” on the back of Bangladesh’s recent interest to procure 2 GW of solar energy from India.

Analyst data records 53% annual growth in storage in 2017, rising to 1.9 GW as South Korea climbed to top of the tree in terms of cumulative capacity. Global project pipeline has soared to 10.4 GW.

According to the latest GTM Research statistics, global inverter shipments increased 23% in 2017, and revenues 11%, thus representing another record year. A market first, three-phase string inverter shipments overtook those of central inverters.

According to the latest statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), global renewable energy (RE) generation capacity hit 2,179 GW last year. Leading the charge were renewable hydro, onshore wind and solar PV.

With 11 GW, India is set to become the second largest solar PV market in 2018, usurping the U.S., as global demand reaches 113 GW, says IHS Markit. It adds that Q4 will be the biggest quarter in history for installations, with 34 GW expected.

The analysts forecast further solar growth for this year, with the Spanish market expected to become Europe’s fifth-largest in 2018.

Polysilicon and wafer manufacturer ranking: PV demand reached record levels in 2017, with global installations surpassing 100 GW for the first time ever. Few in the industry expected deployments to hit this level, piling the pressure on to the supply chain. Armed with polysilicon and wafer manufacturer ranking data supplied by IHS Markit, pv magazine delves into the past year’s upstream landscape.

Inverter overview: As 2017 drew to a close following a record-breaking year for solar, pv magazine sat down to discuss the global inverter landscape with Cormac Gilligan, senior solar analyst at IHS Markit. With China dominant, India’s soaring solar market still very much up for grabs and technical innovation a perennial route to market leadership, these are the six trends that we believe will shape the solar inverter landscape this year.

Market analyst IHS Markit has issued its first forecast for 2018 installations. It expects the global market to surpass the 100 GW mark for the first time ever, hitting 108 GW.