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Solar
Electric Energy demand has grown consistently by 20-25%
per annum over the past 20 years. This has been against
a backdrop of rapidly declining costs and prices.
This
decline has been driven by a) increasing efficiency of solar
cells b) manufacturing technology improvements, and c) economies
of scale. The photovoltaic solar industry now globally generates
around $10bn revenues. This includes the sale of  solar
modules, its associated equipment and the installation of
those systems. In 2001, just under 350 Megawatts of solar
equipment were sold to add to the solar equipment already
generating clean energy.
In
2005, 1,460 Megawatts of PV were installed. This increased
to 1744 Megawatts
in 2006.
Rapid
growth of on-grid sales in 2003 led them to be almost double
those to off-grid customers, including both industrial (including
telecommunications) and habitational applications (mainly
in developing countries). In both these off-grid markets,
solar power is the 'fuel of choice', and is usually fully
justified by its own economics.
The
majority of on-grid applications are 'distributed' - namely
solar installed at the point of use (e.g. residential and
commercial buildings).
The
largest on-grid market by far to date has been Japan, where
demand has been stimulated by large government funding programs.
This is followed by Germany, where grid-connected applications
are also stimulated by major market incentive programs.
Centralized
on-grid applications are those of utilities for inclusion
with their portfolio of primary energy sources. The best
examples of these installations are in Italy, USA and Spain.
However, they are few and far between and are generally
heavily subsidized pilot facilities.
Cumulative installed PV power by application area in IEA
reporting countries (MWp).
Source: IEA
The
European Photovoltaic Industries Association (EPIA) represents
the PV industry in Europe. Its latest views on the future,
the European PV Road Map may be found at this
link.
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