4. The Current Situation and Perspectives on the Use of Solar Energy for Electricity Generation

According to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association’s market outlook for 2013, it is almost certain that the majority of new solar PV capacity in the world will be installed outside of Europe. Countries with the highest increase in the solar PV sector will be China, the US, Japan, and India. Europe’s role as the unquestioned leader in the solar PV market has come to an end. While Europe accounted for 74 % of the world’s new solar PV installations in 2011, and even around 55 % the year after, the region only represented 29 % of the world’s new solar PV installations in 2013. That said, various markets in Europe still have strong and almost untapped potential for significant solar PV growth in the coming years (Masson et al. 2013).

It is important to state the following: Long before that solar PV technology became a reliable source of power connected to the grid, it was largely used to provide electricity in remote areas that lay out of the reach of electricity grids. While off-grid systems in the EU only account for around 1 % of the installed solar PV capacity (with slightly more than 130 MW), they represent a significant power source in many other countries.

Most of the EU’s growth in 2009 occurred in Germany, where 3.8 GW of new solar power was installed, bringing the total power generated in that country to 9.8 GW. In the fourth quarter alone, around 2.3 GW of solar power was connected to the grid. In fact, Germany ranks first in the world for cumulative installed capacity, followed by Spain at 3.5 GW, thanks to the renewable energy legislation adopted in these countries. Second in the solar PV growth ranking was Italy, which added 0.73 GW of solar power, followed by Japan with 0.48 GW, the US with 0.46 GW, the Czech Republic with 0.41 GW, and Belgium with 0.3 GW. However, in the EU, only 0.4 % of total electricity supplied to users came from solar PV systems in 2009. Worldwide, the percentage was a mere 0.1 %.

In Spain, CPS is expected to increase by 14 TWh, while in other EU member states, CSP is projected to produce significantly smaller amounts of electricity in 2020.

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform (2005) is one of the European Technology Platforms (ETPs), a new instrument proposed by the EC. ETPs are a mechanism to bring together all interested stakeholders to develop a long-term vision to address a specific challenge, create a coherent, dynamic strategy to achieve that vision and steer the implementation of an action plan to deliver agreed programs of activities, and optimize the benefits for all parties. The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform has recently been established to define, support, and accompany the implementation of a coherent and comprehensive strategic plan for solar PV. The platform will mobilize all stakeholders sharing a long-term European vision for solar PV, helping to ensure that Europe maintains and improves its industrial position. The overall objectives of the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform are the following: (a) sharing a long-term European vision for solar PV; (b) realizing a Strategic Research Agenda; (c) recommendations for implementation; and (d) ensuring Europe’s industrial leadership. More precisely, the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform will: (a) Implement a strategic plan to provide advice and expertise to the decision makers to allow them to make informed decisions regarding the long-term potential of solar PV; (b) Propose actions to all policy makers to help to ensure that clear, coherent priorities are established and that support is fully integrated, thereby facilitating implementation; foster joint initiatives involving stakeholders in the formulation of research programs; ensure strong links and coordination between industry, research, and market.

For the first time in history, the five top sources of newly installed electricity in Europe were renewables, with hydropower, biomass, and CSP following wind and solar PV. The decline of gas has to be understood in a context of stable electricity demand in Europe in the last decade, existing overcapacities in some regions of Europe, as well as the low price of wholesale power and competition from coal experienced in the last few years.

In Spain, up to 4 % of the electricity demand was provided by solar PV technology during the summer of 2010.

In 2009, the site of Zwentendorf power plant became Austria’s largest solar power plant with an investment of €1.2 million, with the addition of 1,000 solar photovoltaic panels. Zwentendorf was intended to be Austria’s first nuclear power plant, but after a vote in 1978, prohibiting nuclear power in Austria was never completed. In September, 2011, Austria’s largest solar power plant, 2 MW, was under construction in the Niedere Tauern mountain range.

In November 2010, the parliament removed the possibility of exemption from income tax for five years for all producers of renewable electricity. It introduced a 26 % retroactive tax on benefits generated by all solar photovoltaic installations over 30 kW, applicable to systems installed in 2009 and 2010 and payable in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

In addition, in February 2010, the publicly owned Czech transmission system operator CEPS asked the main distribution operators to stop permitting all new renewable power plants due to the potential risk of grid instability.

In France, the price paid by industry for 100 kWh of electricity increased from €2.5 in 1983 to nearly €6 today. Even more disturbing, the price of 100 kWh of energy produced from gas and heavy fuel has doubled from about €2–€4 in the span of less than a decade (from 2000 to 2008).

Germany has more than 17 GW of solar solar PV systems connected to the grid.

For the first time in years, solar power installations in Germany went down to 3.3 GW. Germany saw three consecutive years with a roughly stable 7.4–7.6 GW of connections, leading to a total solar power installed capacity in the country of a record 35.7 GW. However, regulatory changes pushed the market down (Masson et al. 2013).

In 2010, the country set a world record for installations of solar PV in one year (7.4 GW).

Concentrated solar power (CSP) is suited for medium to large applications up to hundreds of MW range with a minimum size of about 5 MW. The technology is available, but expensive and obviously has seasonal and intermittent characteristics. Studies have shown a significant solar energy potential for CSP across the Mediterranean region. Research is looking to the development of more efficient and cost-effective components and plant schemes including solar chemical applications, especially for the production of hydrogen.

The EU has been supporting the CSP sector for more than ten years, spending some €25 million to research projects working to develop this technology. Also, the EC published a map of the solar power potential of Europe. The map is produced by the geographical information system of the Joint Research Centre, which also includes an interactive service allowing users to calculate the solar power potential of any location in Europe. The information in the map shows that an identical solar system will generate twice as much energy in sunny areas of Europe, such as Malta and Southern Spain, than in areas such as Scotland or Northern Scandinavia. The interactive information service map allows very specific calculation of the amount of energy that can be generated in any given location in Europe and its neighboring regions. This calculation is based on knowledge of the Sun’s energy, geographical distribution, the different terrain across Europe, and detailed technological analysis of the available solar PV technologies. The map shows that considerable potential exists in Europe for greater use of solar energy.

A budget of €14,960 million has been agreed for the period 1998–2002 of which €13,700 million is foreseen for the implementation of the EC section of the Fifth Framework Programme, technological development and demonstration activities (1998–2002) and €1,260 million were allocated to the EURATOM program.