PV challenges and opportunities in Europe

The evolution of the European market in the period from 2010 to 2012 includes challenges and opportunities originated from market enlargement and regulatory incentive revisions, in a context of growing competition

The period from 2010 to 2012 appears as one with significant changes for the European photovoltaic industry, which will have to confront new challenges and remarkable opportunities including market enlargement, regulatory incentive revisions and scaling competition from a growing amount of countries.
These are the conclusions of the study entitled Europe Solar PV Markets and Strategies: 2010-2025, conducted by Emerging Energy Research (ERA). This report foresees that the European market will double its size in the aforesaid period, with installed capacity growing from 16,000 MW in 2009 to almost 32,000 in 2012 (subsequently reaching 101,000 MW in 2025).
The study focuses on feed-in tariff schemes, which are presently being revised in almost all countries: "These programs, which have been instrumental in getting the Europe PV sector off the ground to date, now are evolving rapidly in their designs to shape both the size and content of the market going forward”, says Reese Tisdale, one of the authors of the study.
Another significant factor is that industries will undergo a greater geographical diversification. Indeed, although Germany will keep its strong leadership, emerging markets from other countries will be strengthened, particularly those of Italy, France and the Czech Republic.
Among leading utilities that operate in large-scale photovoltaics, the report emphasizes the role
of Enel, EDF, Statkraft, Acciona and E. ON, in a market that will face increasing competition of low cost products coming from Asia, primarily from China.
(June 2010)