We are familiar with the inexorable and welcome march of solar panels across our rooftops, but many might be surprised that utility-scale power plants are now the fastest-growing application for the photovoltaics (PV) industry. This sector has delivered a compound annual growth rate over the last five years of 100 percent, to reach a cumulative installed capacity above 10 GW by the end of 2012. At that time, there were some 400 solar generating stations with a nameplate capacity of 10 MW and over, but the number and capacity of large-scale PV plants continued to grow in early 2013.
The first MW-scale PV projects date back to the early 1980s, when Arco Solar built two large plants in California; but there was little else at this size until the German feed-in tariff (FiT) law was revised in 2004. Subsequently the first PV installations of 10 MW and more were built in 2006, and the sector burgeoned with the introduction of Spain's FiT in 2007. Notwithstanding the hiatus over the subsequent withdrawal of Spanish tariffs, other European markets pressed on and large-scale capacity totaling 3 GW was installed in 2011, led by almost 1 GW in Germany.
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The first MW-scale PV projects date back to the early 1980s, when Arco Solar built two large plants in California; but there was little else at this size until the German feed-in tariff (FiT) law was revised in 2004. Subsequently the first PV installations of 10 MW and more were built in 2006, and the sector burgeoned with the introduction of Spain's FiT in 2007. Notwithstanding the hiatus over the subsequent withdrawal of Spanish tariffs, other European markets pressed on and large-scale capacity totaling 3 GW was installed in 2011, led by almost 1 GW in Germany.
Read more....
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