Photovoltaics on a continuing global growth curve
Installed photovoltaic capacity increased around the world by more than 50 percent last year and is thus the fastest growing technology out of all renewable energy sources. That is the conclusion of the 2007 Global Status Report by the REN21 network. According to the report, installed capacity around the world is currently around 10 gigawatts. The first quarter of 2008 indicated strong continued growth for the current year, particularly in the large-scale plants segment. According to pvresources.com, an independent photovoltaics information portal, specialising in large-scale plants, Europe is continuing to increase its current global market share of 80 percent; whereby more than 75 percent of total capacity is being operated in Spain and Germany. Strong growth has been recorded here in the recent past, particularly in Spain. In global terms, the USA is also a key market. Large-scale plants with a capacity of more than 1.5 gigawatts have already been installed. In the past three years, installed capacity of large-scale photovoltaic plants around the world with a power rating of 200 kilowatts or more nominal capacity has doubled every year. Based on current developments, this trend will also continue in 2008.
Source: solarserver.de, Januar und März 2008; Photon, März 2008, S. 42 ff.
Portion of renewables in the energy mix
Spanish government is committed to its own national solar industry
In March, the Spanish solar industry association, ASIF, announced that the Spanish government had guaranteed the continued existence of the national solar industry after the end of September. At this time, the current assistance legislation, Royal Decree 661/07, is due to expire. Thus, according to the association, Jaume Margarit, director for renewable energies at the national Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) affirmed that statutory arrangements needed to be made to temper the overwhelming current growth rate. At the same time, Margarit also made assurances that the termination of the current feed-in tariff in the autumn would not mean the end of the photovoltaics industry in Spain. Back in September 2007, the Spanish Industry Ministry announced the expiry of the current feed-in tariff. The structure of future arrangements has been under discussion since then. In addition to shifting focus from assisting large-scale open space systems to smaller and medium-sized rooftop systems, an annual degression of feed-in tariffs could be introduced.
Source: solarserver.de, renewableenergymagazine.com
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EPURON completes 2 MW photovoltaic project in South Korea
The Korean subsidiary of EPURON GmbH has completed its first photovoltaic project with an output of 2 megawatt. The plant is valued at 10 Mio Euro. EPURON Korea was commissioned by Samchully Co. Ltd, a leading Korean energy firm, to finance and develop the plant.
Energy spending parking lot in South Korea
The government of the tiger economy in Seoul has launched a market incentive scheme to develop renewable energies in 2004. Similar to Germany, the construction of solar energy systems is subsidized with low-interest loans and each kilowatt hour of solar energy fed into the public grid is rewarded with the equivalent of 40 Euro cents, guaranteed for 15 years.