Report: Floating solar to exceed 6 gigawatts per year by 2031

PV Tech:

The global floating solar (FPV) market will surpass 6GW by 2031, with China, India and Southeast Asia set to deploy the lion’s share.

A new report from energy analyst Wood Mackenzie forecasts that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of FPV will increase by 15% in the next ten years, with 15 countries set to surpass 500MW of installed capacity. China, India and Indonesia will make up almost 70% of the world’s FPV capacity.

By 2031, China will have cumulatively installed over 13GW of FPV, with India and Indonesia over 10GW and 8GW respectively. The price of FPV – though currently higher than traditional ground-mounted systems by between 20-50% – is falling as demand increases and technology develops. PV Tech Premium published a discussion of the technological developments in the sector in February.

Ting Yu, consultant at Wood Mackenzie, spoke at SNEC PV Power Expo in Shanghai this week: “The global solar industry, including PV developers, continues to battle limited land availability and increasing land costs for ground-mount solar projects, which is driving demand for floating installations… increased competitiveness in the developer and EPC landscape is helping to drive down costs in the sector.”

[Will Norman]

More: Floating solar market to surpass 6GW a year by 2031, with concentration in APAC – Woodmac