Climate Changed

The Solar Market Could Contract for the First Time Ever

  • Installations may slip 3% in 2018 under conservative model
  • BNEF forecasts three scenarios for solar installations
Photographer: Daniel Rodrigues/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

The global solar market could do something this year that it’s never done before: shrink.

Solar installations in 2018 may total 95 gigawatts, down 3 percent from a year earlier, based on the most conservative of three scenarios modeled by Bloomberg NEF in a report Monday. For comparison’s sake, the typical nuclear reactor has about a gigawatt of capacity.