The speed of current solar developments is truly amazing. It was only in 2016, that we celebrated Europe reaching the important milestone of 100 GW of grid connected solar power capacity. At that time, nobody had anticipated that only a year later, in 2017, the world would add nearly 100 GW of solar in just 12 months. 2017 was also a very special year, because solar deployed nearly twice as much capacity as wind. Solar also out performed traditional energy generation technologies, with almost 3 times as much solar compared to gas and coal, and around a factor of 9 times more than nuclear additions. Solar alone installed more generation capacity than all fossil fuels and nuclear together.
The reason for solar’s popularity are manifold – it’s unique in its flexible and distributed clean nature, which allows innumerable applications. It is now also increasingly the lowest-cost power generation technology. Researchers and industry have been doing a tremendous job of reducing solar costs.
The solar industry has done its homework in bringing cost down and providing the facilities to deploy solar rapidly (in 2017,China alone installed 53 GW in one year). Now it’s key that policy makers embrace this opportunity by quickly creating the right regulatory frameworks for solar and storage, and other relevant technologies, to help speedily accomplish the energy transition.
We are very glad that just before we went to print with this report, the European Union’s three legislative institutions – the Commission, Parliament and Council – agreed on a 32% 2030 renewables target and empowered citizens, companies and communities with the right to produce, consume, store and sell power without being subject to punitive taxes or excessive red tape. That’s the right direction – and what we’ve been lobbying for. A new solar dawn is breaking in Europe and SolarPowerEurope are at the forefront of shaping the new framework for solar and delivering its potential for our members.