GH SOLARThe European photovoltaic market
Recent years...
The European Union photovoltaic market has grown in the last years with around 35%, thereby reaching the limits of the sector’s procurements capacity for the first time in 2005. Photovoltaic industrialists would have been able to produce many more modules if it had not been for the current shortage of silicon, the principal raw material of solar cells. This trend of silicon shortage seemed to continue till 2007. Sector experts preview this trend will go on till solar cells produced by new technology with a higher efficiency will enter the market in the coming years.
At the end of 2007 the cumulative installed capacity in the world grew till 7,8 GigaWatt, with more than 2 GW installed in 2007. In 2007 as in recent years the greatest proportion of around 80% was installed in Germany and Japan, which are still the leading countries in solar energy production. Germany continued to be the leading market in Europe with 85.8% of the total capacity installed in the European Union. This unashamed success has inspired other countries to set up the conditions necessary for rapid development of their photovoltaic sectors.
When classifying the type of installations we see that grid-connected applications like solar roofs and photovoltaic power plants still count for the biggest share of around 94.4% of the installed capacity.
In 2006 and 2007 we saw a large increase in use of the fiscal instruments to publicly support or promote PV in the European countries by use of enhanced feed-in-tariffs with direct capital subsidies playing a very important role. Tax credits for PV deployment have emerged in a number of countries. Two main policy issues are focusing the attention of many governments on the potential and role of renewable energy in their energy supply. Mix climate change has recently assumed a much higher profile, and both local and global energy security issues continue to make an impact.
Forecasts preview a steady market growth in 2008 till 2010 of approximately 35%.
Unless Germany stays the leader in production and installation of solar energy in Europe, other countries are following their authoritative role. After Spain and Italy followed Germany as early adopters of the fiscal instruments to support installation of solar energy, also other countries like Belgium, Luxemburg and France are following with financial government support tools. Furthermore the Netherlands is expected to restart the federal fiscal support during 2008.
When talking about Belgium we consider an increase from 1.153 in 2006 to a record of 2.966 installations in 2007. The type of installations follow the European trend with more than 90% installed as on-grid connections in family houses.
One of the big reasons of this booming success is the increase in energy prices which makes solar energy more attractive. But also the guaranteed green energy certificates are responsible for the increase in popularity of PV systems.
2010 prospects will depend on policies
The prospects of growth in the photovoltaic market are still just as good as before. Silicon producers have finally responded to the expectations of the photovoltaic industry by announcing new production capacities. These extensions have reassured the photovoltaic industry, which in turn has responded by massively investing in new production capacities, in phase with ever greater demand.
This increase in demand remains, however, dependent upon the political will to develop this market at the national level. In Germany, the purchase price guaranteed until 2007 should make it possible to continue to maintain a very high number of installations, and it is more and more probable, taking the investments made by the German industry into consideration, that an incentive system will be renewable by the new government. The Italian decision is good news because it is going to make it possible to structure the sector and, if the policies continue to follow, create a big new photovoltaic market. The situation is also very favourable in Spain and France. Taking these new elements into consideration, the consortium has defined a new estimate of European installed capacity of 6000 MWp in 2010. The ambition of the "Sustainable Energy Europe" campaign seems to be on track with an increasing growth as well in installed MWp as well as in relative growth percentages.