The world’s top ten markets for utility scale solar

Australia has fallen further down the rankings of countries with utility scale solar, tumbling seven places to 30th. Any further down and its ranking will be as low as the Socceroos on the world football ladder.

According to Wiki-Solar.org, Australia has been overtaken by seven countries and now sits just behind the Dominican Republic, with still just 10MW of utility scale solar from a single plant. That though, is about to be added to with the imminent opening of the 20MW Royalla solar plant in the ACT.

As Australia falls down the rankings, South Africa has jumped into the top 10 after taking its total of utility scale solar to more than half a gigawatt.

Four large scale solar plants have come online in the last month. These include two 66MW_AC plants at Lesedi and Letatsi, developed by SolarReserve and Intikon, and connected in late May. They were joined in early June by the Herbert and Greefspan projects built by California-based Sunpower Corporation.

South Africa is likely to climb further into the top 10 as it has allocated more solar capacity in the second and third rounds of its Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme. Japan and Chile may soon be joining them in the top 10, possibly threatening the position of France and Italy in the top division of world utility scale solar.