News & Analysis

In most of this region’s countries, photovoltaic energy in 80’s and 90’s was limited only to very small rooftop on-grid and off-grid installations. Due to the high photovoltaic technology equipment costs, these installations by late 90’s have been with a capacity between 1 KWp and 30 KWp. However, this situation started to change in 2010 for 2 main reasons. The first reason is that governments in some of the CIS states introduced some measures to support alternative energy producers to meet targets for higher renewables usage. National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAP’s) have been developed for some of the CIS states setting mandatory capacity targets (similar to Directive 2009/28/EC for EU member countries) for renewable energy usage as a share of final energy consumption by 2020 to 2030. The second reason is falling photovoltaic (solar PV) module and inverter prices since 2009, which led turn-key installation cost for PV systems from 4.3 EUR/Wp in 2008 to approximately 1.5 EUR/Wp in 2013. Consequences of the continued financial crisis in the EU zone are pressing policy-makers to cut costs, which could negatively affect the photovoltaic sector, dependent on government incentives and stable regulatory framework and laws. This pressure EU zone combined with maturing photovoltaic markets in Germany, Spain, France, Italy and subsidy cuts Eastern European countries may redirect investors to explore opportunities in CIS states according to CIS Countries Photovoltaic (Solar PV) Market Outlook 2013 – 2018

The issues of renewable energy regulatory framework and feed-in tariffs adequacy, grid access to the local distribution or transmission network, have generally obstructed photovoltaic (solar PV) sector development in many countries in Europe and rest of the world. Authorization processes must not only be streamlined, but they must enable plans to be successfully realized, bolstered by flexibility and an infrastructure that allows new wind plants to be connected to the grid. Thus, governments of CIS countries have to plan coordinated actions to avoid the above-mentioned markets’ mistake and build one strong and reliable photovoltaic (solar PV) energy market in the CIS region.

Our forecast for photovoltaic (solar PV) power sector in CIS countries is positive. The only developed market at the moment is Ukraine. Besides Ukraine, next wave markets with short and medium-term potential for development in 2014/2015 are Kazakhstan and Russia. We expect market drivers by the end of 2014 to be projects with capacity mainly in the range between 1 MWp to 20 MWp. More information about these promising markets you may read here: CIS Countries Photovoltaic (Solar PV) Market Outlook 2013 – 2018