Global solar investment down 20 percent

Despite the drop in global demand for solar, the market remains strong in the US, overall investment remains stable, with wind and other clean energy technologies picking up the slack. In the following piece, we give some statistics about the status of the global market. Overall, clean energy investment dropped just one percent and totaled $138.2 billion in the first half of 2018. China, the globe’s No. 1 investor in clean energy, contributed to much of the drop in solar investment. The country’s solar funding fell 29 percent between the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2018.

In June, the government announced it would not approve any more subsidized utility-scale PV projects in 2018. The change, effective immediately, means projects connected past June 1 will not receive any feed-in tariffs from the government, constricting growth in a country that’s become the world's leader.
 

Big changes in China solar policy

GTM Research expects Chinese PV demand to drop this year to 28.8 gigawatts from a past projection of 48.2 gigawatts. Between 2018 and 2022, demand will fall to 141 gigawatts from the previous projection of 206 gigawatts. It's a significant contrast to last year, in which BNEF notes China set a "spectacular" record by installing 53 gigawatts.  The extreme shift in China also has analysts at BNEF suggesting that 2018 could be the year that global solar installations fall for the first time. The full impact of the policy change, announced just one month ago, won’t be clear until later in the year. Looking ahead, GTM Research analysts expect there to be an upside to steadily falling module prices. After 2020 they’ll unlock additional global demand as solar edges closer to or achieves grid parity in some regions.
 

Renewable sectors growth 

Meanwhile, spectacular investment growth in other sectors could outshine solar entirely.  In the U.S., for instance, investment in wind grew 121 percent between the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2018. Investment in the U.S. wind sector is expected to increase further as developers scramble to meet the federal Production Tax Credit deadline. In China, wind investment rose as well, although by a smaller 4 percent. Overall, wind investment in the two countries came out nearly equal: $17.5 billion in the U.S. and $17.6 billion in China. Investment in “energy smart technologies,” a category that encompasses products such as battery storage and electric vehicles, grew 64 percent. 

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