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T&D World: Solar Drives U.S. Revenue Growth While Nuclear Sees a Global Bump

Posted by Bob Keough on Aug 23, 2019

Transmission and Distribution World published this first column in a four-part series by AEE's Bob Keough summarizing AEE's 2019 Market Report findings. Read excerpts below and the entire T&D World piece here. 

According to the Advanced Energy Now 2019 Market Report, advanced electricity generation is now the second largest advanced energy segment globally, having been displaced as the biggest by advanced transportation in 2017. At US$453 billion, advanced electricity generation was down slightly in 2018. Global revenue has been largely flat for the past two years, dropping roughly US$1 billion each year since 2016, but the total masks significant growth in solar and hydropower in 2017, nuclear power in 2018, and wind in both years.

In the United States, advanced electricity generation continues to be the second largest segment of the US$238 billion advanced energy market and is still growing strongly, up 8% in 2018, with revenue growth in wind and solar, while natural gas turbines held steady. Over the 2011 to 2018 period, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for advanced electricity generation revenue was -1% globally, while for the United States, revenue CAGR was 6%.

Advanced electricity generation in 2018 globally was boosted by investments in nuclear generation. Meanwhile, large hydropower projects in Africa continue to materialize despite long development cycles, and hydro buildout in Asia continues. Hydro led all generation categories with US$122.6 billion in revenue in 2018.

Though now accounting for more than 1300 GW of installed capacity worldwide, hydro revenue declined 13% from 2017 to 2018. Solar photovoltaics (PV), at US$119.3 billion, declined 16% over 2017 after three consecutive years of revenue growth. This is primarily a function of declining prices, as 5.4 GW of solar PV was installed in 2018, up slightly from 5.3 GW in 2017...

Read the entire column in this four-part T&D World series here. 

Topics: United In The News