According to the Economic Times, after ten years of strong growth, global energy research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie said that demand for solar power in the Asia-Pacific region will decline for the first time this year. Compared with 2017, solar energy demand in the region will fall by 18% to 59 GW in 2018 due to the decline in the number of installations in China, India and Japan.
Wood Mackenzie's solar analyst said, “Traditionally a leader in the Asia Pacific region, China's solar installations are expected to decline by 30% this year as it is adopting various subsidy-reducing policy tools.”
In the past few years, China's photovoltaic installations have seen unprecedented growth. The 13th Five-Year Plan, released in 2016, sets the minimum target to 105 GW by 2020. It reached its target in 2017, three years ahead of schedule, with a cumulative capacity of 131 GW.
During 2016-2018, due to oversupply of modules, costs fell faster than the FIT level. As a result, installations of annual provincial construction quotas that often exceed utility-scale projects have resulted in delays in subsidies and reductions.
In order to regain control of the pace of solar energy development and reduce the burden of subsidies, China implemented a number of expedient measures in May this year. These include the elimination of further quotas for utility-scale projects, 10 GW of distributed solar quotas in 2018, lower FIT levels and a transition to auctions.