In recent years, there has been an intensive development of solar energy in many countries of the world, including Ukraine. Mankind has been trying to solve the issue of obtaining electricity from renewable energy sources since the middle of the last century.
But it was possible to achieve good performance only by raising the efficiency of solar panels to 18-25%. Thanks to this indicator, the construction of solar power plants has become financially justified.
Moreover, in order to accelerate the development of the industry, the governments of almost all states implementing the alternative energy program have introduced a special green tariff… It provides for the purchase of environmentally friendly electricity from legal entities and individuals.
All of this has contributed to an increase in solar electricity by about 50% over the past five years. Consider how this industry is developing around the world and what are the prospects for the future.
What to expect in the future
Solar energy has been actively developing over the past fifteen years. If in 2004 its share in the world energy complex was only 0.1%, then already in 2012 this figure increased to 0.43%, thanks to an increase in production in 2011 by 93%. By 2016, the share of solar electricity in the global energy complex was 1.3%. Today, this figure is approximately 3%, but in the future it is expected to commission a solar power plant with a capacity of 200 GW in Saudi Arabia.
Along with other similar facilities that will be put into operation in other countries, this will give a noticeable increase in solar energy production. Based on current statistics, as well as taking into account the development of technologies in this industry, experts assume that by 2050 solar power plants will be able to provide 20-25% of electricity. spent by humanity. This will lead to an annual decrease in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and, as a consequence, to a decrease in the intensity of the development of the greenhouse effect.
The current situation in the global solar energy
In Ukraine, solar energy began to develop later than in developed countries. Nevertheless, it is here that the largest solar power plant with a capacity of up to 100 MW is located. Canada ranks second with a 97 MW facility. The third place is for Italy with 84.2 MW, and the fourth for Germany, since a power plant with a capacity of 80.7 MW has been built on its territory.
But even the presence of the most powerful power plant in the world is not enough for Ukraine to become one of the five leaders in the production of solar energy. If we take a single country, then China produces the largest volume of electricity. In terms of kW per capita generated by solar panels, Germany is in the lead.
Also, if you take individual countries, then among the leaders you can see Australia,Japan, France, Italy, Spain and the United States. They generate about 75-78% of the world’s electricity from solar power plants. Taking into account the increase in the intensity of the development of solar energy in other countries, it is assumed that in the near future the share of the leaders in this segment of the world energy complex will decrease.
This is due to the fact that investors are interested in the construction of Solar energy plants in countries with the highest solar insolation. Ukraine has good prospects in this, since about 80% of its territory has high insolation, which creates favorable conditions for high efficiency of solar panels.