Solar Energy: Spectacular Growth Unlikely to Continue in 2009

clipped from www.worldofrenewables.com However, 2009 will be an uncertain year for the sector as the economic downturn and key changes in some of the industry's most sizeable local incentive programs take hold. Long derided as uneconomic, the nascent solar photovoltaics (PV) market has gained significant ground since the turn of the century on the back of its green credentials and significant subsidy support. Before that, its wide-scale deployment as a means of generating power had progressed only very slowly. Since 1998, however, the solar market has grown on average by 31% year-on-year, culminating in record growth of 61% in 2008 and an estimated 14.7GW of installed capacity. Solar PV is quite simply the fastest growing renewable energy in the world. Yet this comes as no great surprise. In the past 10 years, the global renewable energy industry has grown rapidly on the back of strong political will, generous subsidies and rapid technological advancements.