Here in Australia we're at the forefront of showing how solar panels can really foster a sustainable and cost efficient future.
The global electricity market has been becoming more diverse, integrating sources such as solar power into an industry previously dominated by the centralised power plant model.
One of the obvious benefits of solar PV technology is that it allows power to be generated onsite, so there's less of a need to build new and costly transmission capacity.
Navigant Research has predicted how solar PV capacity is going to grow in the next five years, considering the trend towards it and its significant benefits – and it's good news.
It has predicted that 220 GW of capacity will be installed between 2013 and 2018. This amounts to $540 billion in revenue throughout this period.
"Used in applications ranging from residential to small commercial to industrial settings, distributed solar generation offers significant benefits to consumers while adding resiliency to an electric grid evolving beyond the traditional centralised model," says Dexter Gauntlett, research analyst with Navigant Research.
"Though this market is still primarily driven by government incentives, distributed solar PV will continue its steady march toward grid parity in major markets over the next few years."
Despite the proven effectiveness of solar PV, feed-in tariffs are being repealed in countries all around the world – even right here in Australia.
One example of this close to home is the changes to Queensland's solar feed-in tariff and recommendations made by the Queensland Competition Authority to reduce its benefits to users.
Navigant Research reassuringly suggests that such reductions in financial incentives for going solar will drive the solar PV industry to stand on its own feet and merits, without government support.
The overall global solar PV market contracted slightly in 2012 as big players such as Italy and Germany had reduced activity, but growth continued in other parts of the world, especially the up and coming solar nations such as Japan in the Asia-Pacific region.
Posted by Mike Peacock