Solar Outlook – EUROPE

As promised, this time I will take you to a nice solar tour to Europe-For Free! With all that saved money, consider our Astralux May Special with the best SolarCare Plan in the industry! Next time, get ready to ASIA Outlook!

In Europe, new installations roughly tripled last year, according to Emerging Energy Research, an independent research firm. The most important markets in Europe are Germany and Spain, followed by France, Italy and Austria. At a recent meeting of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), more than 4000 scientists from 750 companies across Europe agreed on what they believe to be realistic goals for photovoltaic energy production: photovoltaic industry could provide 12% of European electricity demand by 2020. Grid-parity (that is the point when PV is as cheap as conventional grid power) could be reached in southern Europe by 2015 and in most of the rest of Europe by 2020.

Germany

Germany is at the same latitude as southern Alaska, has cloudy skies and is a much smaller country than the United States. Yet the number of installed solar panels is more than three times the amount in the USA, and even more than twice that in any other country, impressive! Germany has been the top solar energy market thanks to a reliable feed-in tariff program that requires utilities to pay high prices for solar energy. The trick was that they had vision, and policy followed the vision, and industry growth followed the policy. The country is not a natural for solar, not the sunniest place on Earth, still Germany has around 49% of the world’s market for photovoltaic systems.

The construction of what could be the biggest solar boat in the world began in Germany in January 2009. The solar-powered boat will make a round-the-world trip in 2010 with stopovers along the equator, (and N.Y and S.F.) Mark the calendars!

If you are planning to visit Germany this spring, do not miss these excellent events:

5/26/2009 SolarPlaza is organizing a top-level conference - "The Solar Future - at the Kempinski Four Seasons in Munich. CEOs and experts from the world's leading PV companies and leading experts from industry and finance will be discussing the solar related topics. http://events.solarplaza.com/thesolarfuture/

5/27-29/2009.The world’s largest solar technology trade fair and the annual meeting place for everyone interested in the international solar industry. InterSolar 2009 in Munich Germany.http://www.intersolar.de

Spain

Spain is now the world's second largest PV producer after Germany with some 3,200 MW installed, which supplied 3.2 percent of the country's electricity in April 2009. In 2008, sunny Spain proved to be a gold mine. The country saw its PV market grow almost fivefold in one year from 560 MW in 2007 to more than 2,511 MW as a result of a generous feed-in tariff, representing more than 45% of the global PV market during that year, according to the EPIA. Grid parity could be reached as early as 2012 according to EPIA.

Spain, the NO8DO city of Seville, is also home for PS 10 and PS 20- solar power towers. 20 MW-capacity PS-20 begun commercial operation just recently; in April 2009. It has 1255 reflective mirrored devices called heliostats, each with a surface area of 1291 square feet. PS10 and PS20 are part of larger project, which will eventually generate 300 MW of energy and serve over 10,000 homes.