By Ucilia Wang Contributor GREEN TECH 1/23/14. Latin America is a shining, promising solar market that will be a lot more difficult to crack.That’s because Latin America doesn’t have the same levels of generous government incentives that subsidize project costs or guarantee high prices for solar electricity in countries such as Germany, United States, Japan and China, said Adam James, a solar analyst at GTM Research, during a webinar on Thursday. The global solar industry has grown tremendously in the past decade as a result of policies for promoting clean energy generation and reducing carbon footprint. In Japan’s case, a strong desire to reduce its reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in 2011 also has turned it into a booming market for solar.“Unsubsidized markets grow and develop instead of just explode,” James said. “What we are seeing (in Latin America) is a steady growth as developers move from doing mostly off-grid projects to on-grid projects.” That lack of lucrative incentives hasn’t stopped solar companies from Europe, the United States and Asia from landing in Latin America, though. If anything, figuring out a strategy for an emerging and unsubsidized market is smart for solar companies that want to stay ahead of competition. Plus, changes in politics sometimes cause a boom-and-bust cycle in subsidized markets that that catches companies off guard, leaves them with a buildup of unsold equipment or forces them to do massive layoffs. Back in 2011, First Solar declared its long-term plan to find anchors in unsubsidized markets after it had grown to become one of the largest solar panel makers in the world by doing a brisk business in subsidized markets. Latin America is expected to install 724 megawatts of solar panels in 2014, said Shayle Kann, GTM’s senior vice president of research. It will likely make up 2% of the global demand for solar in the next four years, GTM said.
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