The EU installed around 8GW of new solar capacity in 2018, a 36% increase on 2017, according to figures from SolarPower Europe.
Solar installations in the continent of Europe, including countries outside the EU-28, grew by around 20% to 11GW in 2018 compared with the previous year.
Europe’s largest solar market in 2018 was Germany with 2.96GW of new grid-connected capacity, up 68% from the 1.76GW installed in 2017.
Turkey, followed, installing 1.64GW in 2018, down 37% from the year before, after a decline in demand due to the financial downturn in the country.
The Netherlands ranked third as the largest solar market in 2018, adding 1.4GW compared to 770MW in 2017.
SolarPower Europe policy director Aurelie Beauvais said: “We will see very strong demand for solar in Europe in the next two years. One of the main reasons is the upcoming EU 2020 targets, where many member states will opt for low-cost solar to meet their obligations.
“It is important that EU member states enforce the right national climate and energy plans to sustain this solar boom,” Beauvais added.
According to the trade group a sudden demand pull from China at the end of 2018 led to a supply shortage for high-quality panels in Europe, forcing several developers to delay the completion of projects into 2019.
The 2018 global solar market numbers with details on individual countries will be published during the SolarPower Summit on 6-7 March 2019 in Brussels.