Solar demand outlook in Asia Pacific

USA: Reportlinker.com announced a new market research report in its catalog: Solar Demand Outlook: Asia Pacific.

The Asia Pacific region has significant potential for deployment of solar technologies. In the past, with the exception of Japan, solar has primarily been deployed in off-grid applications in the region, but this is beginning to change. In particular, moves by governments in the United States and Europe to counter the dumping of solar components have led to a renewed determination by the government of China to increase domestic deployments.

In 2011, the market for photovoltaic products in Asia Pacific increased by 232 percent over 2010, from 1.7 GW to 5.8 GW. China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore have strong domestic solar supply chains, while India is ramping up a manufacturing effort. East Asia, including China and Japan, was responsible for 75 percent of global shipments in 2011, 18 percent of demand, and 19 percent of installations.

Although the potential in the region for significant demand growth is high, in many countries the cost of electricity to the consumer is highly subsidized and incentives for solar are too low to render the technology competitive with other energy technologies. Navigant Consulting forecasts that region-wide demand will grow from just over 7 GW in 2012, under a conservative scenario, to more than 9.6 GW in 2014.