However, the pullback – due to weakness in both developed nations like the US and growing economies like China and India – will be temporary, with the global market recovering to 45.3GW in 2014, and then increasing to 61.2GW of annual capacity by 2017.

Last spring, GWEC predicted a 46GW global market in 2012 – just 1.2GW higher than the true figure reported today in its Annual Market Update.

In