China will account for 40% of global PV installations in 2023. Distributed will be dominated by industrial and commercial projects.

EA recently released the "Renewables 2018" report, which analyzes and predicts the market for renewable energy and technology in 2018-2023.

In the next five years, the share of renewable energy in global energy demand will increase by 1/5, reaching 12.4% by 2023.

Image source: IEA

Renewable energy will be the fastest growing sector in the power industry, providing 30% of electricity demand by 2023, compared with 24% in 2017.

During this period, renewable energy is expected to account for more than 70% of the world's new power generation, of which photovoltaics are the first, followed by wind power, hydropower and biomass.

Hydropower will remain the largest renewable energy source, meeting 16% of global electricity demand by 2023, followed by wind energy 6%, photovoltaics 4% and biomass energy 3%.

Brazil has the most environmentally friendly energy structure, and China will dominate the growth of renewable energy.

Image source: IEA

Among the world's largest energy consumers, Brazil's share of renewable energy is by far the highest - by 2023 it is expected to account for 45% of total energy consumption.

In 2017, renewable energy hit a record, with new installed capacity exceeding 178 GW, surpassing 2/3 of global net power generation for the first time. Photovoltaic installed capacity is over 97GW, more than half of which comes from China.

At the same time, the newly added wind power on the land declined for the second consecutive year, and the hydropower growth rate continued to slow down.

In the next five years, the total installed capacity of photovoltaics will increase by nearly 600 GW, more than the sum of all other renewable energy sources, equivalent to twice the total installed capacity of Japan's power.

Image source: IEA

Despite this year's policy changes, China will remain the absolute leader in the photovoltaic industry, and by 2023, China will account for 40% of global PV installations.

Distributed generation will play a very important role in photovoltaic growth.

The expansion of photovoltaic distribution will account for more than half of the global installed capacity of 2018-2023, and the distribution will be dominated by industrial and commercial projects, followed by household use.

It is estimated that by 2023, photovoltaic applications in household, commercial and large industries will account for 2% of global power generation.

If there is no distributed generation, the growth of photovoltaics may be similar to wind power.

The second largest source of renewable energy growth is wind power, which will remain the largest renewable source by 2023.

Similar to last year's forecast, the installed capacity of wind power is expected to increase by 60% (325GW), of which offshore wind power will account for 10%.

Mainly due to the development of China, the development prospects of hydropower and biomass energy will be more optimistic than last year.

In addition to geothermal energy and ocean energy, China is still the world's largest market for renewable energy growth. It is expected that China will account for 40% of the world's new installed capacity in 2018-2023.

Although recent policies on renewable energy support programs have changed to achieve more cost-effective expansion and address the challenges of grid integration, as wind and photovoltaic technologies become more competitive, by 2020, China is expected to easily exceed the newly introduced Renewable Energy Quota System (RPS) target.

Image source: IEA

The EU will surpass the United States as the second largest renewable energy market after China, with 125 GW of renewable energy installed in the grid in 2018-2023.

The basis for this optimistic forecast is that the EU will achieve a 32% renewable energy target by 2030.

Although US renewable energy installed capacity is expected to increase by 44%, recent changes in federal tax laws, trade policies, and energy plans have brought uncertainty in the downside forecast.

India's renewable energy installed capacity is expected to double, mainly from photovoltaic and onshore wind power.

From Latin America to many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, renewable energy will accelerate growth.