As can be seen from the chart at the left (updated in June, 2016) the solar industry has seen remarkable growth. The red bars represent the "annual" amount of PV solar systems installed by manufacturers in giga-watts (1 GW = 1 billion watts). For reference purposes, one nuclear reactor produces about 1.3 GW of electricity per year.
The data for 2012 and 2013 is from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA). The data for 2014 and 2015 is from Mercom Capital. The forecast for 2016 is from the author.
The 5 year average growth rate from 2012 (30.1 GW) to 2016 (68.0 GW) is about 22% per year - a nice growth rate.The growth in 2013 was 28% and 2014 was 17%, which averages out to be 22.5% for the two years (very close to the 5 year average). The growth in 2015 was also 28% and and 2016 is projected to be 18% (slowing down somewhat as the numbers begin to get quite large). The 2013 and 2015 growth spurts of 28% were mainly due to increases in China, Japan and the US which have continued through out this period.
Solar Markets Around The World
Solar doing very well around the world