European Commission has published a new map showing the PV (photovoltaic) solar energy potential of various regions of Europe. PV solar cells transform sunlight into electricity directly. PVGIS (Photovoltaic Geographical Information System), developed by DG Joint Research Centre, the internal scientific service of EU, lets users to predict the performance of solar energy at any particular area in Europe.
The new PVGIS is a critical tool for the development of new solar power plants like the one incepted on March 30, 2007 in Seville, a city in Southern Spain. This is the initial commercial concentrating solar power plant in Europe that has been jointly financed with EU research funds.
Power generation from renewable solar energy will cut the dependence on polluting power stations that run on fossil fuels, thereby chipping in to national and EU endeavors to use home-grown renewable energy to obviate climate change.
Along with the map and interactive service, the PVGIS provides a glut of information on the development of PV technology, like the statistical data on its contribution to total national power consumption in each EU Member State, updated status on research on PVs, and links to worldwide records of solar technology and data. The interactive information service map enables very precise calculation of the volume of energy that can be produced in any specific region in Europe and its neighboring areas.
This tool is of immense importance as the European Commission seeks to augment the share of renewable sources of energy in its total energy consumption to 20% by 2020.
According to the RNCOS report "Photovoltaics – A high potential market opportunity (2005-2010)", in EU, from 2001 to 2005, photovoltaic system installation increased by six times to reach around 1.8 GW collective installed capacity. The growth prospects for European market seem pretty good. According to EU, the goal set for the photovoltaic market is 3000 MWp through 2010 end.
The market research report puts forth the detailed overview on photovoltaic technology with focus on various solar cell materials, solar cell structures, and applications. Country-wise performance of the technology has been analyzed coupled with future projections and industry analysis.
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