Europe could gain by switching to solar power

GERMANY: Europe’s early and enthusiastic embrace of solar energy is paying off, with the region leading in production of photovoltaic (PV) cells, potentially paving the way for a 300 billion savings in electricity costs.

European companies supplied 27 percent of global PV cells in terms of wattage in 2008, allowing it to slightly exceed China’s total of 26 percent, and handily surpassing Japan at 16 percent and the United States at 14 percent.

Beyond leading in the production of PV cells, Europe is by far the world’s largest market for solar installations. This hasn’t happened by accident, as European governments, research institutions and industry players during the last two decades have worked in close coordination to reach this point.

The underlying driver for this effort was a desire to wean the European economies off hydrocarbon-based electricity sources while creating jobs and establishing a new industry capable of competing on the global stage.

During 2008, more than 80 percent of new worldwide PV capacity was installed in Europe. Germany and Spain accounted for 84 percent of Europe’s installed PV capacity during the year.

Europe’s end-market leadership largely is due to favorable incentives in the form of “feed-in-tariffs,” which allow entities that feed the grid to receive premium pricing, thus making the Return On Investment (ROI) on PV installations more attractive.

These incentives are starting to slow somewhat in 2009, especially in Spain’s case. However, they have successfully served their purpose of driving down prices by building a large-scale, competitive PV supply chain.

Energy week

During this month’s (February) Sustainable Energy Week event in Brussels, the EU Commission presented the Strategic European Technology Plan for Renewable Energy. Solar plays a strategic part of the plan and it will generate 15 percent, 12 percent by PV electricity and 3 percent by concentrating solar thermal systems, of the region’s electricity demand by 2020.

To support its member states in achieving these binding targets, the EU Commission is fostering publicprivate partnerships to more quickly deploy solar energy. Large solar power plants, urban integration, i.e., solar cities, and transnational rural electrification, such as the Mediterranean Plan, will help accelerate solar energy deployments.

While rapidly decreasing prices make solar economically attractive in many countries, deployment may

become the real bottleneck.

To achieve the goal of 12 percent PV solar energy supply, several things must change, according to Anton Milner, chief executive officer of Q-Cells, and spokesman of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA).

These changes are:

* Grid management must be capable of accomodating a large supply of solar power during the daytime.

* Efficient storage solutions must be developed.

* Governments must foster utility companies to prepare for greater solar energy production.

Milner and his team estimate that Europe will save up to 300 billion euros by switching to 12 percent of PV solar power by 2020. Cost savings will be due to the fact that solar installations are cheaper than any nuclear or coal facility and that the fuel for PV systems, i.e., sunshine, is free.

Shining bright

The world’s top producer of PV cells in 2008 was Q-Cells of Germany. REC of Norway is another large global player and perhaps the most vertically integrated because it supplies everything, from the polysilicon raw material, to cell and module manufacturing, to system installation services.

SolarWorld of Germany and BP Solar of the United Kingdom are examples of European cell/module producers that have sought to leverage their success in Europe and have invested in the emerging US market to try and to take advantage of invigorated government incentives there.

As PV demand expands around the world in the coming years, iSuppli expects European companies will continue to play a major role.

The author is Senior Director, Principal Analyst, iSuppli Deutschland GmbH, in Munich, Germany.

Source: iSuppli, USA