These forecasts are based on the compound annual growth rate, which is about 14.8 percent.
A strong state support has gave a good background for the growth of the solar panels market of the Asia-Pacific region, because the governments of these countries are interested in reducing air pollution, greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. For example, India has high hopes for solar energy in terms of energy diversification in the long term period. The Asian Development Bank has already invested about 100 million dollars in Indian companies, which are implementing solar energy technologies in the private sector, and the total profit of the market of the solar panels in the Asia-Pacific region has already exceeded 14.9 billion dollars annually.
The concept of large-scale projects for the installation of solar panels is supported by these countries in every possible way, as the panels are widely used and today they are installed on the roofs of buildings in areas of industrial and municipal lands. The confirmation of this revolutionary technology can be Japanese experience, where the solar panels are installed even on the water surface. The total capacity of these floating systems is already more than 15,635 megawatts per year. Frequent earthquakes and the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant inhibit the development of Japan's energy and as a result, the government is worried about the serious issue of the researching and application of renewable energy sources.
This trend has led to the fact that last year the Asia-Pacific region has become a major consumer of the world market of the solar panels, concentrating 46% of global installed capacity. Moreover, against the background of a global economic delay and as a consequent falling of the prices, Asian manufacturers are actively exploring all the technological stages of production, seeking to reduce production costs and increase the efficiency of technology. The most active consumers are such countries as Australia, India, Japan, Thailand and China. In 2014 in these countries 95% of the volume capacity, launched in the region, was put into operation. As for the production, the share of Asian manufacturers has increased to 80% of the world total level.
Continuing this theme, it’s important to mention the fact that more than 23 gigawatts of capacity were established in the region in 2014, which exceeds the volume of the global market in 2010, and the volume of the European market in 2011. Thus, it can be stated that the existing leading countries, such as Italy and Germany, lost their influence on the world market, giving leadership to Asians, which expected to reach the level of the solar energy of 50 gigawatts on the regional level in 2015.
Considering already entered in the system and announced goals and projects this volume does not seem fantastic. For example, Chinese officials said about entering into system 12 gigawatts of capacity in 2014, two thirds of which are installed on the roofs of houses. By 2017, the Chinese market is expecting to reach the level of 2017 gigawatts.
Not far behind them is the Japanese market, which showed 230% of the growth in 2013 and tending to enter into the operation more than 20 gigawatts of capacity.
Leading analyst of the Ukrainian Biofuel Portal pelleta.com.ua Sergei Kozlov believes that Thailand may become the next "Asian tiger", whose government has set a goal to bring the level of energy needs to a quarter of the total in 2020 by using the alternative sources of the energy. According to the National Energy Policy Committee of Thailand at least 800 megawatts of power will be generated at the expense of large solar power plants and another 200 megawatts will be generated by solar panels located on the roofs of buildings.
As for Australia, according to the statistics only quantity of small solar installations, located on the roof, increased by 50% in 2013. The record-holder is the state of South Australia, where 157,000 such units were established with a total capacity of 548 megawatts, equivalent to 20% of the total volume. In total, Australia has about 750 thousand such installations.
It’s important to mention the fact that Australia is a leader not only in terms of increasing of the capacity, but also in terms of scientific research in this direction. In particular, Australian scientists have offered to the customers a new effective cover, allowing increasing the solar energy conversion rate is above 40%. These results were demonstrated during tests conducted in Australia and the United States. Today it is the highest indicator of the efficiency of the solar panels.
Summarizing all the above, we can say that the intensity developing markets of the Asia-Pacific region made the right choice by selecting solar energy as the most promising areas of alternative energy. Thus helps not only solve the problem of environmental and energy independence, but also allow to survive in the time of predicted financial crisis with minimal losses to the countries of the region.
