The global Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) market is expected to undergo a major growth spurt in the next five years, with its cumulative installed capacity forecast to jump from 357.9 Megawatts (MW) in 2014 to 1,043.96 MW by 2020, says a new report from research and consulting firm GlobalData.

According to the company's report*, China and the US dominated the global CPV market in 2013, with their cumulative installed capacity reaching shares of 35.4% and 33.3%, respectively. Spain stood third after the US with 12.2%, followed by Portugal and Italy, with respected shares of 5.1% and 4.3%.

Swati Singh, GlobalData's Analyst covering Alternative Energy, says: "The CPV market is at a nascent stage, especially with the technology evolving and achieving new heights of efficiency improvement. Companies that have been successful in operating CPV prototype systems in pilot sites are now progressing towards multi-MW CPV projects."

Two CPV power plants came online in 2012 and 2013. These were Amonix's 30-MW Alamosa in Colorado, US, and Suncore's 50-MW CPV power plant in Golmud, China, which is the largest CPV plant in the world.

However, despite these developments, market growth forecast is conservative, according to GlobalData. From 2009, many companies in the CPV industry, both small and large, either had to close down their businesses due to bankruptcy, or were acquired by other companies.

"A further concern in the CPV industry is the reliability and performance of the systems, although significant efforts have been made to develop International Electrotechnical Commission standards for CPV-system certification," Singh concludes.

*Concentrated Photovoltaics (CPV), Update 2014 – Global Market Size, Competitive Landscape and Key Country Analysis to 2020