The world-wide solar photovoltaic (PV) market continued to grow in 2011 even in the midst of financial and economic crisis, with new grid-connected PV capacities rising by 27.7 GW and propelling the global PV capacity from 39.7 GW at the end of 2010 to 67.4 GW at the end of 2011.

• EPIA claims 27.7 GW on newly installed PV capacity in 2011.
• The growth rate of PV during 2011 reached 70%, an outstanding level among all renewable technologies.
• The European Photovoltaic Industry Association’s (EPIA) new Market Report 2011 shows important increase in grid-connected capacity of PV systems.
• However changing economics will require development of new markets in the world.

Almost 21 GW of this growth occurred in Europe.

The number of markets reaching more than 1 GW of additional capacity during 2011 rose from 3 to 6. In 2010 the top 3 markets were Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic; in 2011 Italy leads the ranks and Germany, China, the USA, France and Japan follow, each with over 1 GW of new capacity. Those are among the key findings of EPIA’s new “Market Report 2011”, which assesses PV’s development in all major markets around the world.

Europe still accounts for the predominant share of the global PV market, the report finds, with 75% of all new capacity in 2011. The two biggest markets in 2011, Italy and Germany, account for nearly 60% of global market growth during the past year.