The global cumulative PV capacity, installed and commissioned, increased by more than 25% last year thanks to post-Covid price hikes and geo-political strife.
The global installed PV capacity reached about 1.2TW by the end of 2022, with China continuing to be the country with the largest installed capacity, according to the Snapshot of Global PV Markets 2023 issued by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
In 2022, a total of 240GW of new solar PV systems were installed and commissioned worldwide, which resulted in the cumulative capacity reaching 1,185GW. China continued to dominate both new and cumulative capacity, as it added 106GW of capacity last year, or 44% of the global additions, with its cumulative installed capacity reaching 414.5GW. This growth followed that of previous years – 54.9GW in 2021 and 48.2GW in 2020.
Top 10 countries for annual installed PV capacity
- China | 106 GW
- EU | 38,7 GW
- USA | 18,6 GW
- India | 18,1 GW
- Brazil | 9,9 GW
- Spain | 8,1 GW
- Germany | 7,5 GW
- Japan | 6,5 GW
- Poland | 4,9 GW
- Australia 3,9 GW
The European Union installed 38.7GW of solar capacity last year, increasing from the 27GW registered in 2021 and 20GW in 2020. Led by Spain (8.1GW), Germany (7.5GW), Poland (4.9GW) and the Netherlands (3.9GW), the EU was the second largest market in terms of cumulative capacity with 209.3GW.
The US installed only 18.6GW last year, down from 27GW in 2021, under the combined influence of trade issues and grid connection backlogs which reached 1TW of solar projects waiting for interconnection access.
India’s annual installed capacity reached 18.1GW, but its cumulative capacity only totalled 79.1GW, lagging behind Japan’s 84.9GW despite the East Asian country only adding 6.5GW of capacity in 2022.
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