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Japan, which wants to be a world leader in photovoltaic (PV) technology, fell further behind in 2008 in the rankings of installed PV capacity. The United States still trails far behind Japan as well as No. 1-ranked Germany and No. 2-ranked Spain.

Are the wheels in motion to produce an upset at the end of 2009? Japan is moving rapidly to increase the subsidy monies pouring into its PV growth efforts. In the United States, President Obama has placed great emphasis on sustainable energy development such as solar, and the U.S. federal stimulus package is designed to fund significant new projects—but it remains to be seen how effectively and how quickly those dollars will result in real installed sustainable energy capacity.

2008 PV Rankings
Germany was still the top country in the world in 2008 in installed, grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, while Spain has taken the No. 2 spot away from Japan. These results come from a Kyodo News report, which reports numbers from a draft version of an annual status report from the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

The report put Germany’s total installed PV base at 5.4 million kW, or more than twice that any other country. Spain, thanks to a significant increase in PV installation in 2008, now has a total of 2.3 million kW. Japan was No. 1 on the list as recently as 2005, but saw it position bumped down to third, with a total of 1.97 million kW.

PV installation just within the year 2008:

Spain: 1.7 kW
Germany: 1.5 kW
United States: 300,000 kW
Japan: 240,000 kW