2021 Best Year in History for Solar in the EU: Report

• The 27 participant states of the European Union saw around 25.9 GW of new solar PV capacity attached to their grids in 2021

The 27 member states of the European Union saw around 25.9 GW of new solar PV capacity attached to their grids in 2021, a boost of 34% over the 19.3 GW set up the year before, a report by SolarPower Europe has actually found this month. This development makes 2021 not just one more record year for solar in the EU, it was additionally the best year in history, occurring specifically one decade after the former record was set at 21.4 GW in 2011, the report adds.

Solar energy in the Europe Union has once again shown a stellar efficiency in 2021 regardless of negative market problems on different fronts-- from the continued adverse effects of COVID-19 on our daily lives to PV product supply scarcities as well as subsequent solar module cost walkings.

Top 10 EU solar markets 2020

The Top 5 markets in the European Union have actually stayed the very same, as well as among the Top 10, there are only 2 novices that are from northern Europe (Denmark and also Sweden), replacing two established PV markets, one in central Europe (Belgium), the other in the south (Portugal).

Germany: Like last year, Germany is again Europe's significant solar market in 2021 It connected 5.3 GW, contrasted to 4.9 GW the year before. The EU's biggest economy has greatly held the No. 1 setting given that the begin of this century. The year 2021 was characterised by a modification of the Feed-in Law (EEG) in January, which has made investments in property and tiny business systems a lot more attractive after a self-consumption levy was gotten rid of yet placed an economic worry on larger roof self-consumption systems to compel this section right into a tender plan. In consequence, the German market that grew by around 1 GW annually between 2017-2020, is estimated to have actually grown by less than half a gigawatt or 8% in 2021.

Spain: Spain has kept the second rank in Europe, after setting up an estimated capacity of around 3.8 GW in 2021, slightly up from around 3.5 GW in the previous year. Almost 3 GW was know from PPA based systems out of an enormous pipe under development in Spain. This makes the Southern European country most likely the globe's biggest market for subsidy-free solar, but it also demonstrates that grid restrictions can be a significant worry for quick release of huge solar volumes. The 2.9 GW of solar energy plants allocated in 2 auctions in 2021 will certainly be mostly mounted in 2023.

Netherlands: The third spot is taken once again by the Netherlands after installing an approximated 3.2 GW, up 11% from 2.9 GW included 2020. The business rooftop market stays the primary motorist of the Dutch solar market. Its share has actually grown a little over 40%, while the web metering backed residential sector has actually seen its part a little diminish to around one third, and ground-mounted systems remain to contribute around 20%.

Poland: Poland continues to shock the field, raising its yearly solar enhancements again-- this time around by 28% to 3.1 GW, from 2.5 GW in 2020. This implies, Poland keeps the 4th ranking. The country is a solar 'newcomer', setting up more than a GW in 2020 for the very first time. The significant increase in PV capacity over the last years has actually been mainly as a result of a favourable self-consumption scheme for prosumers, a net-metering system that is complemented with a rebate system for residential systems, and also minimized VAT as well as revenue taxes.

France: France stays the EU's 5th biggest PV market. It installed an approximated 2.5 GW in 2021, which marks a brand-new record after more than doubling solar grid connections from 0.8 GW in 2020. This can be thought about an advancement after years of installment levels hovering close to the 1 GW degree, when lengthy management treatments and also tough grid link procedures prevented designers to speed up installations.

Greece: Greece has greater than tripled annual PV implementation to an all-time record of 1.6 GW in 2021, considerably up from 0.5 GW linked to the grid in 2020. Exceeding the annual GW setup level for the very first time equates into the 6th ranking for Greece amongst the EU's solar markets. The boom is driven primarily by small ground-mounted PV projects approximately 500 kW, for which the federal government recently expanded the feed-in costs until completion of 2022.

Denmark: None of the EU's Top 10 solar markets have actually grown as much as Denmark in 2021. The European Union's newest solar shooting star increased yearly mounted capacity 6-fold to 1.2 GW, from a plain 0.2 GW in 2020. Gigawatt scale has actually been achieved almost exclusively through ground-mount utility-scale PV power plants constructed without subsidies for supplying solar energy to business purchasers.

Italy: A COVID-19 recovery fund supported 110% tax obligation bonus caused bigger need for household as well as storage space installments in Italy, but extreme allowing problems and also unsatisfactory auction results for solar resulted just in 0.8 GW recently set up capacity in among Europe's biggest as well as most bright economies.

Hungary: Huge rate of interest in the small ground-mount systems segment, and property as well as commercial roof installations approximately 50 kW, have resulted in an additional extremely ood solar year for Hungary, which has raised its annual solar grid-connections to 0.7 GW in 2021.

Sweden: The current entrance to the Top 10 is Sweden, where tax obligation rewards as well as gives have actually continued to fuel need. With growing task in the solar PPA section, installments have boosted to an approximated record market dimension of 0.7 GW in 2021.

Leads 2022-2025

The coming 4 years up until 2025 will certainly be characterised by further solid growth, according to our Medium Scenario. While analysts prepare for inflated module rates will return to 'typical' degrees in the 2nd half of 2022, it stays to be seen when precisely this will happen. In any case, the raised module prices will certainly have adverse effect on certain tasks in 2022, as well as probably a lot more than in 2021 when designers as well as EPCs had still volumes accessible that were purchased at much reduced price levels, even if the actual quantities gotten were typically less than expected.

However, at 16% annual growth prices, 2022 will become an additional record year for solar in Europe and the very first time the 30 GW threshold will be gotten to. With costs back to regular as well as Germany's enormous new prepare for solar to gain grip in 2023 and for the very first time getting to a 10 GW annual market size, we expect a 28% growth rate to 38.5 GW in the EU. Though the development rates will transform much more moderate in the adhering to two years-- 16% in 2024 and also 11% in 2025-- this will be enough to cause yearly solar deployment volumes above the 40 GW degree-- 44.6 GW in 2024 as well as at 49.7 GW in 2025, thus nearly touching the 50 GW degree.