Countries in the world’s sunniest regions led by China, India and Mexico may buy as much as 1,100 gigawatts in solar panels over the next 20 years, 50 times the world’s current capacity, Adel El Gammal, general secretary of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said.
“These are fast-developing countries and they are countries where electricity demand will grow very significantly in the next two decades,” El Gammal said today at a conference in Barcelona.
About 75 percent of the world’s photovoltaic capacity is now in Europe, he said. The installation of panels in Europe rocketed in the past three years as governments in Germany, Spain and Italy offered above-market prices for solar power.
“The market has developed in regions where the solar irradiation is quite moderate,” El Gammal told executives and policy makers gathered to discuss plans to build generators in the Sahara desert to power European industry and homes. India, China and Mexico “have very high solar irradiation, which makes them perfect environments for PV to become competitive.”
The price of such systems will fall by about 50 percent over the next 10 years as improving technology expands the conditions in which they can compete with conventional power, El Gammal said, drawing on data from a report due to be published tomorrow.