Solar Demand driven by Asia
Solar energy demand in 2013 rocketed to 37 GW up almost 25% from 2012, as China became the largest demand driver with almost 11.9 GW of solar energy capacity installed last year. Japan came in the 2nd place, with more than 6 GW. Germany which used to be biggest solar country in the last 5 years dropped to the 5th place with ~3.5 GW of solar capacity installed, down almost 50% from the last year. Asia has become the center of the global solar industry both from a supply and demand perspective. USA has also become a big demand driver as both residential and utility solar installations grew at a fast clip.
Residential solar installations in USA are being driven by innovative financial schemes launched by companies such as Solarcity, Sun Run etc. However, the expiry of the Investment Tax credit (ITC) in 2016 may present a temporary bump. The production tax credit seems a good long term measure even though it may reduce the growth rate in the short term. Europe installed less than that 30% of the global demand, which is a sharp drop. Solar energy capacity was being driven by Europe, as the countries raced to meet the 2020 RE target of generating 20% of energy from green sources. However, most countries are now pretty much saturated with solar energy and have reduced policy support to a minimum. The solar demand in these countries have reached the post grid phase with self-consumption driving solar demand.
Globally solar capacity has exceeded 130 GW and it will keep growing at a rapid pace as more and more countries reach grid parity. China will keep supporting high levels of solar installations to keep its massive solar factories running and reduce dependence on dirty coal. Japan has also started to ramp up and it is far from reaching saturation as the country’s total electricity capacity is the 3rd largest in the world after USA and China. 
Source: EPIA
