Wiki-Solar has reported on many new records recently regarding utility scale solar PV, meaning an installation over 4 MWac counts as a utility scale solar plant. First of all the big record this year, a summation of every country has totalled nearly 10GW more installations which takes the figure up to 30.3 GW a significant increase from 21.5 GW at the start of this year. This new record continues the trend from the past 5 years, as each subsequent year has broken their previous year’s utility scale solar installations.
There is clearly a growing demand for solar panel installations, they have become commercially recognised as a worthwhile investment for any business, and alongside that, the increase for residential solar panel installations grows and grows.
In terms of each country’s contributions to the record, it shows United States has the most solar plants over 4MWac, 407 to be specific, which totals more than 7GW. Behind the United States in the records is China having 245 solar plants providing 6.5 GW, then Germany at 281 solar plants with 3.47 GW, next is India at 196 solar plants with 2.2 GW and we the UK come in fifth having 250 utility scale installations with 1.9 GW of solar PV capacity.
Wiki-Solar’s database is derived from more than 3,000 utility scale solar projects worldwide, of which two-thirds are operational and the remainder under development or construction.
Continuing the records’ list for details on the top 10 countries, South Africa appears for the first time within the top 10, South Africa amassing 20 solar plants generating 680 MW, Spain next with 172 solar plants generating 1.7GW of PV capacity, Italy with 86 plants for 901 MW, Canada with 72 plants for 896 MW and finally France with 63 plants for 819 MW of solar PV capacity.
Should you include the next 5 countries on the list, Japan, Romania, Chile, Thailand and Ukraine, those 15 countries together makeup 94% of the global utility scale solar PV capacity.
