THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE OF THE SOLAR ENERGY MARKET …
HIGHLIGHTS
Investments in solar energy has exceeding forecasts.
Solar power capacity actually jumped 104% to 16.7 GW compared to 2018
A thriving economy can be represented as a self-sustaining virtuous circle
Solar Energy 2020
By Planet Soar Team
Will the « green deal » be primarily photovoltaic? The solar energy sector seems to benefit from a favourable alignment of planets in Europe.
Investments in this area are exceeding forecasts. At the beginning of 2019, industry experts were expecting solar power capacity in Europe to increase by more than 42% to 13.5 GW. The sustained pace of investment over the year has not been to their disadvantage… except that solar power capacity has actually jumped 104% compared to 2018 to 16.7 GW.
Directive 2009/28/EC, which, as a reminder, set the European Union a target of 20% renewable energy in final consumption by the end of 2020, is certainly driving this development of solar energy. However, the restrictive environmental policy of Brussels is not enough to explain this rapid growth of photovoltaic installations. For it seems that the return in force of green energies since 2018 is more the result of a renewal of their economic model.
Solar energy has become a pragmatic choice before being that of the energy
transition.
A thriving economy can be represented as a self-sustaining virtuous circle. And the spectacular growth of solar energy is above all the result of the economic realism of the main players in energy production. In just 10 years the price of solar panels has fallen by 80%. And this trend is not about to stop. Because the downward cycle is indeed self-sustaining. Every doubling of the installed capacity reduces costs by another 20%.
It should also be noted that this fall in prices is not unrelated to the EU’s decision at the end of 2018 to abolish customs duties on photovoltaic panels imported from China. And in these conditions a new leap forward in solar energy investments is on the horizon for 2020. Some are already planning to add production capacity of more than 20 GW. In view of what happened in 2019, we would almost be tempted to hope that they are wrong.
