A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) PV Power Systems Program has shown Australia leads in solar photovoltaics (PV) per capita as the global PV market continues to grow.

While still showing strong volumes, PV installation in Australia contracted slightly to 3.9 gigawatts in 2022.

This was mainly due to supply chain issues and investment lags and it is expected these issues should be resolved in 2023.

Australia remains number one for solar PV per capita with 1,166 watt/capita, ahead of the Netherlands (1,040) and Germany (807).

Following on from last year, Australia is in the top ten countries with highest PV penetration, ranking fifth with over 15.7 per cent.

Australia also remains in the top ten for both new installs and total market, as it has done for over twenty years.

The global PV base once again grew significantly in 2022, reaching 1185 GW (about 1.2 terawatts) of cumulative capacity according to preliminary market data.

With 240 gigawatts of new systems installed and commissioned, and nearly a dozen countries with penetration rates over 10 per cent, (over 15 per cent for Australia!), PV has demonstrated that it is a serious, major, long-term contributor to cost competitive electricity generation and emissions reductions of the energy sector.

PV Market major trends include:

• The Chinese market continues to dominate both new and cumulative capacity and added 106 GWDC or 44% of new capacity to reach 414.5 gigawatts of cumulative capacity, more than double that in Europe. This strong growth follows that of previous years – 54.9 GW in 2021 and 48,2 GW in 2020, and evenly balanced between centralised and distributed systems.
• India once again showed strong growth with 18.1 GW, predominantly in centralised systems, and a PV penetration of nearly 10 per cent. Strong volumes from Australia (3.9 GW despite supply chain issues), and Korea round out the regional market.
• Europe demonstrated continued strong growth with 39 GW installed, led by Spain (8.1 GW), Germany (7.5 GW), Poland (4.9 GW) and the Netherlands (3.9 GW). High electricity market prices have reinforced the competitivity of PV and several countries have acted policies to further accelerate PV in line with EU and national energy sovereignty engagements – whilst others are enacting policies to reduce injections because of grid congestion.
• The American market contracted to 18.6 GW under the combined influence of trade issues and grid connection backlogs, whilst Brazil installed a high 9.9 GW, nearly doubling the previous year’s new capacity.
• Japan remained steady at 6.5 GW, the same as in 2021.