Marktanalyse 2015

Across the globe, rapid growth in renewable energies is taking pace under varying market conditions. It is therefore becoming increasing difficult for decision-makers from the political and economic sectors to keep track of the various developments. In order to assist in this area, the “Market Analysis 2015” (Marktanalyse 2015) investigated the current status and medium-term perspectives of a total of twelve technologies in the electricity and heating markets in 175 countries.

The study looked at potential target markets and was based on indicators such as market penetration, annual growth in technologies, natural potentials, and political and economic conditions. Every market can thereby be ordered into four categories: established markets with high market penetration (A markets), growth markets with high growth rates (B markets), future markets with good natural resources and good economic conditions (C markets), as well as markets with good conditions for the application of off-grid renewable energy technologies (D markets).

Recently, the worldwide growth in renewable energies has developed most notably in the sectors of photovoltaic energy, onshore and offshore wind energy, hydropower and geothermal power in a dynamic way. In total, just over half of the world’s nations are investing into the use of renewable energies. In recent years, many African nations in particular have either introduced new funding systems (Ghana and Egypt amongst others) or are busy drawing them up (e.g. Ethiopia and Zambia).

However, significant barriers exist in certain markets across the globe that restricts market entry for foreign companies. Consequently, the market analysis also took technology-specific tariffs and local content regulations into account. The latter have been relatively seldom enforced until now, and where they have been enforced it has occurred most often in the PV sector, where local content regulations could be identified in ten countries.

When considering all the technologies that were investigated in the analysis, the most established and fastest growing markets in the world can be found in Europe, followed respectively by Asia and the Americas. Future markets can be found in every region of the world. Asia heads up the list with 77 future markets. Taking all technologies into account, there are 76 future markets in Europe, 61 in the Americas and 59 in Africa. Off-grid markets are mostly to be found in Latin America (60), Africa (45) and Asia (35).