{"id":23612,"date":"2014-03-18T15:05:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-18T15:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/?p=326666"},"modified":"2014-03-18T15:05:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T15:05:40","slug":"global-demand-shifts-east-as-asian-solar-markets-explode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/global-demand-shifts-east-as-asian-solar-markets-explode\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Demand Shifts East as Asian Solar Markets Explode"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/shutterstock_168301208-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Photo courtesy of Shutterstock\"><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2014\/02\/06\/china-solar-2013\/\" target=\"_blank\">China&rsquo;s 2013 solar installations<\/a> totaled more than that of any other country in any other year, but that fact is emblematic of a larger shift.<\/p>\n<p>While the top 10 solar photovoltaic (PV) markets in the world accounted for more than 80 percent of end-market demand last year, a clear shift to the east took place. According to NPD Solarbuzz&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.solarbuzz.com\/reports\/marketbuzz\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Marketbuzz 2014<\/em>&nbsp;report<\/a>,&nbsp;last year marked the beginning of an end-market demand shift from Europe to Asia.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_326672\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"414\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/140311_Annual_Growth_Rates_in_2013.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Annual solar growth rates. Graphic credit: NPD Solarbuzz\" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/140311_Annual_Growth_Rates_in_2013.jpg\" width=\"414\" height=\"257\"><\/a> Annual solar growth rates. Graphic credit: NPD Solarbuzz[\/caption]\n<p>Japan, China and Thailand were the three fastest growing markets. Each more than doubled demand levels compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, three of Europe&#8217;s top markets trended downward.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The PV industry has emerged from a challenging transition but continued growth in major markets and a shakeout of uncompetitive capacity is leading to renewed optimism in all segments of the industry,&#8221; Michael Barker of NPD wrote in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.solarbuzz.com\/resources\/blog\/2014\/03\/top-10-solar-pv-markets-illustrate-shifts-in-global-demand\" target=\"_blank\">report summary<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The trend also manifests itself in NPD&#8217;s projection of global PV market sizes for this year. The nations in the quadrant I of this chart grew in 2013 and are slated to continue doing so this year. Four of those six countries are in Asia.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_326669\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"500\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Solarshift.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Top 10 global photovoltaic markets, based on market size and growth. Graphic credit: NPD Solarbuzz \" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Solarshift.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"263\"><\/a> Top 10 global photovoltaic markets, based on market size and growth. Graphic credit: NPD Solarbuzz[\/caption]\n<p>NPD <a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2013\/12\/26\/half-worlds-solar-demand-asia-pacific-2014\/\" target=\"_blank\">previously predicted<\/a> that demand would skyrocket in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region this year, accounting for more than 50 percent of all new solar PV demand in the world next year. APAC countries are expected to&nbsp;install more than 23 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV in 2014, which would set a new record for solar PV installed annually within any region.<\/p>\n<p>While the U.S. market is clearly growing, <a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2014\/03\/06\/states-solar-energy-monumental-year\/\" target=\"_blank\">setting its own records in 2013<\/a>, its growth rate is far less than China and Japan. Still,&nbsp;PV installations in the U.S. last year were about 15 times greater than they were in 2008.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Visit EcoWatch&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/category\/renewable-business\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>RENEWABLES<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;page for more related news on this topic.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stumbleupon.com\/stumbler\/EcoWatch\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"stumbleupon\" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/stumbleupon.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,57],"tags":[2892,12198,2913],"class_list":["post-23612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-building-posts","category-leed-news","tag-business","tag-featured-business","tag-renewables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}