A latest report from the International Solar Alliance (ISA) claimed that off-grid solar technology performed well in the South Asian countries. It also added that the technology holds good potential for African and South Asian countries. The report was released today at New Delhi in India.
The ISA report said that adopting off-grid renewable technologies, both stand-alone systems and mini grids can be a cost-effective solution for accelerating electricity access for households and businesses in regions with inadequate power and grid infrastructure.
“The sector has been rising continuously, and between 2012-21, the population served by
these technologies increased from 35 million to 213 million, an increase of more than 500%.
The numbers reduced thereafter owing to improved grid access rates in South Asia and
reduced replacement rates of solar lights and solar home systems (SHSs),” the report said.
The ISA report also added, “The off-grid solar (OGS) industry holds great promise around the world and has potential for continued growth having reached 490 million users24 mostly in the developing
regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia over the past ten years. Between 2015 and
2022, OGS segment has attracted investments of more than $3 billion with ~$740 million in
2022 alone, resulting in a growth of 63% over 2021.”
The report also talked about the dominance of China in the Southeast Asian region in the solar market globally. “In 2022, Asia Pacific and Europe and North America accounted for 55% and 33% of
global solar project development investment respectively. Within these regions, investments
have been dominated by economies that have a mature solar PV market, such as China, United States of America (USA), Japan, Spain, Australia, Netherlands , South Korea, Brazil, Vietnam, Germany, and India. China and USA have been consistently attracting the most annual solar investments, with their combined share of about 50% of all solar investments since 2015,” the report said.
The report also said that China still dominates the global solar manufacturing market with more than 80 percent share. ” The solar PV manufacturing capabilities have remained concentrated in select geographies, with China dominating the solar manufacturing with 80%. Market share across all manufacturing stages of solar PV owing to favorable policies. This geographical concentration has led to supply-demand imbalances in the PV supply chain..” the ISA report read.
The report said that China received roughly half of global RE investments, a whopping $274 billion in 2022 . On other hand, regions home to about 120 developing and emerging markets continued to receive comparatively much lower investments.
