More solar than ever before
At Intersolar, earlier in June, the SolarPower Europe team made their way to Munich for the biggest solar event of the year: Intersolar Europe. We are proud to be partners of this event, which showcases the incredible growth of the sector; over 105,000 people attended this year for the conference and exhibition. The atmosphere was buzzing. It was the perfect time to launch our annual, award-winning report: the Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2023-2027.
This year’s report launch was a true ‘stars in your eyes’ moment. A whopping 239 GW of solar was installed across the world in 2022, marking a 45% market growth from 2021. More countries than ever are now true solar contenders, with 26 countries now GW-scale markets. In addition to this, 2022 was the year that rooftop solar really took off. 118 GW of solar capacity was added to rooftops around the world, powering 36 million more homes with solar.
And it doesn’t end there. The forecast for solar is bright. The world entered TW-level solar last year – that is 1 TW of total installed solar capacity globally. By 2030, we expect this to be the amount of solar energy the world is adding annually, with up to 800 GW per year expected already in 2027!
As Michael Schmela, our Director of Market Intelligence put it: ‘’Grids and flexibility are the sleeping giant of the energy transition – and the giant is waking up. Governments around the world must make upgrading their electricity and storage infrastructure a political priority’’.
Read everything you need to know about the global solar market in our brand new digital report with interactive graphs for a unique user friendly experience.
Speaking of reports and digital products, another theme for the month of June was Agrisolar! As solar growth soars and Europe sets high targets for the years to come, we will need more and more space for deploying vast amounts of solar. Agrisolar offers a perfect solution for optimising land use while producing clean, affordable and reliable energy. During Intersolar, we launched the second version of our Agrisolar Best Practice Guidelines, which was also followed by the launch of our new Agrisolar Europe digital platform.
From crops to rooftops, June was a month to cover it all! Back in Brussels at the Brussels Urban Summit, we launched a new report on Solar Cities. This report details 21 solutions for European cities in the energy transition. A timely launch ahead of EU Sustainable Energy Week where the team organised and took part in a number of events covering topics from energy efficiency, storage and flexibility, to sustainable supply chains.
The highlight of this week, however, was the launch of our new pan-European campaign: European Solar Day. On 21st June, the longest and brightest day of the year, SolarPower Europe along with 30 partners came together to celebrate the power of the sun. This is just the beginning for a new annual celebration of solar energy, which we hope to see spread the joy of solar across the continent, bringing together countries, cities, communities and citizens for our planet and energy security. Take the quiz to find out which solar superhero you are and actions you can take for a solar powered Europe.
I would like to wish you a sunny summer break, and hope to see many of you at our Rooftop REConnect on 5 September in Brussels, where we will unite again to raise the momentum for the second half of the year, supercharging the people’s powerhouse!
See all of our upcoming events here.
Walburga Hemetsberger
CEO, SolarPower Europe
