The European photovoltaic industry has been growing robustly and worth €14 Billion every year. This is largely driven by rising demand for clean energy and depleting fossil fuels.
The European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) states in its report, ‘2008 Status Report on Photovoltaics’ that the European photovoltaic industry is growing at a blistering pace and stands at €14 Billion per year, as reported by azooptics.
According to the Report, there has been a steep rise in the solar power production, growing at an average of 40% since 2003 and touched peak level of 60% in 2007. Moreover, solar energy is expected to represent 0.5% of the total electricity production in EU27 by 2010, equivalent to the total electricity consumption in Slovenia. Currently, solar energy accounts for just 0.2% of overall energy consumption in entire Europe.
The major reason for strengthening solar power industry is the rising demand for clean and renewable energy resources, low manufacturing costs, and new technological developments in the field of photovoltaic that have been contributing to the expansion of PV-array and solar-cell manufacturing.
Moreover, the European solar power industry is giving more importance to the electricity generation to meet demand at peak times, particularly during heat wave conditions that disrupt the functioning of nuclear plants in shortage of cooling water.
And most importantly, renewable energies will be cheaper than imported fossil fuels in future due to economies of scale achieved and innovations.
Besides, photovoltaic cells can be used to power streetlights and home appliances, and work as a supplementary energy source to factories.
Nearly 50% of the global photovoltaic energy is generated in the EU, but the region has to sustain this impressive growth to remain the leading market in coming years.
The report says that this growth can be continued in future, provided the industry focuses on the development of module design concepts and new solar cells using advanced technology as the demand for such materials as silver will exceed the available resources.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “While the global economic scenario is not favorable for growth, the European photovoltaic industry will continue to ramp up to meet escalating energy demands, growing environment concerns and exhausting conventional energy resources.”
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