ABSTRACT
The stock market value of the leading photovoltaics (PV) module manufacturers, most of them from China, taken together come close to $10 billion. Large-scale PV plants are built at $1,000/kW—higher costs up to twice that value and more are experienced, too, but they apply for smaller PV systems and local markets that are still in their infancy and learning phase. China was an absolute newcomer when Germany opened first the new industrial era of PV deployment in 2004. Extrapolating from the 50 GW of PV installed globally in 2015, for the 4 years from 2016 to 2020, PV markets can be conservatively expected to rise by between 60 and 70 GW a year worldwide. Besides China, the United States has become a key promoter of PV. The PV market in the USA turned red hot in 2016 doubling new capacity installation with respect to 2015.
