According to figures supplied by SolarPower Europe , the association of the European solar industry, new power plants connected to the grid with a total output of 2.96 GW were installed in Germany in 2018. Compared to a figure of 1.76 GW in 2017, this corresponds to an increase of 68%. In second place is Turkey, where new installations with a total output of 1.64 GW were completed last year. But that is a drop of 37% compared to 2017 and is the result of the current financial difficulties in the country, according to the organization. In third place came the Netherlands, where new plants with an output of 1.4 GW were built in 2018, thereby crossing the one gigawatt boundary for the first time.

In the 28 countries of the EU, the solar market accounted for a volume of 8 GW in 2018, which corresponds to an increase of 36%. Across all European countries, there was an increase of 20% last year to 11 GW currently. The worldwide photovoltaic market came to a volume of 104.1 GW of newly installed photovoltaic output in 2018. China is in the lead here with 44.1 GW, which represents a fall of 16% compared to 2017. Next came the USA with 11.4 GW and India with 8.3 GW.