By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Growth in the U.S. solar industry is expected to slow down in 2023, while some European and Asian markets are poised to surge, SolarEdge Chief Financial Officer Ronen Faier said on Thursday.
High prices and regulatory uncertainties will constrain U.S. solar expansion, even though the nascent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to promote clean energy industries like solar over the long run, Faier told investors at a Goldman Sachs conference in Miami, Florida.
“We believe…the IRA that is stabilizing very much the benefit of the ITC (solar tax credit) for the next few years, does not put a lot of pressure for anyone to do something when interest rates are relatively high,” Faier said.
The war in Ukraine, however, has sent prices for oil and gas surging and boosted opportunities in Europe, where countries like Germany have offered generous incentives for solar energy, said Faier, whose company is based in Herzliya, Israel.
Some solar markets in Europe, especially in German-speaking countries and the United Kingdom, could jump by more than 100% over the year, he said. In the United States, that growth is expected to be around 15%, he added.
Taiwan, Japan and other Asian nations are also expected to accelerate their expansion of solar build-outs and use.
(Reporting by Laila KearneyEditing by Tomasz Janowski)