The sun shines on the PV market again

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Worldwide growth of photovoltaics (PV), also known as solar PV, has had an exponential curve for more than two decades. During this period, photovoltaics has gone from being a niche market of small scale applications to becoming a mainstream electricity source. When solar PV systems were first recognized as a promising renewable energy technology, numerous governments implemented programs, such as feed-in-tariffs, to provide economic incentives for investments. For many years, growth was mainly driven by pioneering European countries and Japan. The cost of solar consequently dropped significantly, due to improvements in technology and economies of scale, even more so when production of solar cells and modules started to intensify in China.

The globally installed PV capacity is estimated at roughly 250 GW at the end of 2016, sufficient...