Yet another record year as utility-scale solar goes mainstream

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Asia again dominated new installations, with China and India advancing strongly. North America showed only marginal growth, while Europe declined for the second consecutive year. Progress accelerated in both South America and Africa. Australasia completed fewer large projects last year, but promises a stronger 2018.

“These figures scotch any fear that the growth of utility-scale solar might be throttled by declining incentives” says Wiki-Solar’s Philip Wolfe. “As photovoltaics becomes the low cost power source in more and more places, long-term growth now looks assured.”

Although the list of top countries was almost unchanged in 2017 – the only variation being the entry of Brazil at #15 – Wiki-Solar expects more movement over the next year or two. “Chile, Brazil and Mexico have substantial project pipelines, which should see them continuing to move up the league table”, says Wolfe. “European countries are expected to continue drifting backwards, though Spain is at last starting to look at installing new unsubsidised projects, and Italy may follow.”

Australia, too has a significant and growing pipeline, and can be expected to rise into the top 15 in the current year. Canada is for the first time starting to install projects beyond Ontario. Other countries to watch are Turkey and Russia, both of which have implemented tender mechanisms for renewable power.

Country

No. of plants

Capacity MWAC

China

1,173

54,158

United States

1,263

29,335

India

713

19,119

United Kingdom

887

6,710

Germany

433

4,420

Spain

219

4,162

Japan

191

3,331

France

231

2,356

Chile

34

2,182

South Africa

37

1,799

Canada

125

1,652

Italy

142

1,313

Thailand

87

1,057

Philippines

41

963

Brazil

10

869

Top fifteen countries by installed utility-scale solar capacity at end 2017

These results are based on data published by the end of February 2017. Wiki-Solar notes that the figures tend to creep further upwards as later information is published.