Mexico City - As Mexico's wholesale power market launches, a clearer roadmap of the country's solar development is emerging. However, there are market headwinds, speakers and panelists at GTM Research's Solar Summit in Mexico City agreed.

Mexico's solar growth is likely to mirror that of its northern neighbor and other developed countries, but with key differences. The country still faces obstacles that the U.S. and other markets have successfully overcome.

And while important lessons can be learned from solar development elsewhere, Mexico faces some unique hurdles, summit attendees learned.

Obstacles include a lack of awareness among potential customers of the benefits of switching to solar, a lack of capital among residents and access to financing for larger-scale projects, in addition to uncertainty as to how the nascent wholesale power market will play out.

Mexico's solar growth is likely to be slower than in the U.S., which increased from a cumulative 2 gigawatts in 2010 to around 26 gigawatts by the end of 2015, with Mexico's installed capacity currently at less than 1 gigawatt and likely to only add around 2 to 3 gigawatts by 2020.

On a comparative development timeline, Mexico is currently in 2004 in terms of U.S. installed capacity by that year, and is at the stage Germany was at 20 years ago, GTM Research's Shayle Kann said during the summit.

At that time in the U.S., the fastest growth in the country was the commercial PV market, which hit 203 megawatts by 2009. But in Mexico, utility-scale solar is expected to lead growth, at least during the next decade.