Market outlook for North Asian solar PV systems

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "North Asian Solar PV Systems Market Outlook" to its offering.

Growth opportunities are proliferating in the Asia Pacific (Southeast Asia, ANZ and North Asia) solar PV systems market in the wake of declining prices, heightened awareness, favorable policies, and the sustained use of solar power for rural electrification projects.

Solar PV systems provide the ideal environment friendly power generating solution for electrifying remote rural areas in the power deficient areas of the Asia Pacific as it is neither technically nor economically feasible to extend grid coverage across these vast territories.

Market trends indicate burgeoning demand from countries such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and The Philippines owing to strong governmental commitment to the promotion of solar energy and creation of sustainable cities.

Besides commitment from local governments, solar PV systems for rural electrification projects are likely to be driven by increasing active participation of non-governmental organizations, availability of funds from international financial agencies, and involvement of local communities.

Urban end-users growing inclination toward adopting sustainable energy solutions has accelerated the adoption of solar PV systems, particularly for roof-tops and buildings, notes the analyst of this research service. Strong government support through policies, feed-in-tariff schemes, and other deployment programs has resulted in massive uptake of solar PV systems both for on-grid and off-grid applications.

The introduction of feed-in-tariff is expected to be a big stimulant for on-grid solar PV system installations for both distributed and centralized solar power plants in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Market penetration of solar PV systems has been challenged by the high cost of installation as the majority of customers fall under the low-income group. Thus, market growth is heavily dependant on government support in terms of policy guidelines, tax credits, subsidies or rebates. Solar PV systems market growth will continue to rely on government support until the price reaches grid parity.

Moreover, the well developed power infrastructure deters the use of solar PV systems in some urban areas. The global financial crisis did not have a major impact on the solar PV systems market in the Asia Pacific region. However, due to the ripple effects of the financial crisis on the key global solar power markets, the economic viability of some PV projects diminished because of lack of credit from banks, financial agencies and donor countries.

Weak economic conditions have prevented customers from installing expensive onsite power projects. Another factor that contributed to restrained market momentum was the extensive use of diesel fired generator sets and other low-cost renewable energy technologies.

To rev up the pace of growth of the solar PV systems market in the Asia Pacific region, it is vital for countries to establish realistic targets, streamline the policy framework, and aggressively boost customer awareness. Going forward, as production costs decline and solar PV systems gain traction, installation costs are expected to reduce and pave the way for large-scale commercialization.

This, in turn, will attract new entrants across the solar industry value chain. Considering the highly competitive nature of the market, it is imperative for system integration companies to focus on enhancing growth by establishing a strong technical workforce and providing high-quality PV components, says the analyst. Also, participants must ensure on-time delivery of products and provide superior value-added maintenance services to outpace competition.