ALL ABOUT "PHOTOVOLTAICS"

The European Union has in 2006 (last available stats) largely exceeded its White Paper objective in PV (3000 MWp in 2010), reaching 3.4 GWp installed capacity. The dynamic German market being of course responsible for ± 1300 MWp. Spain is following with more than 60 MWp, Italy with 11.6 MWp, France with 6,4 MWp, Austria with 5 MWp, UK with 2.7 MWp and Belgium with 2,1 MWp. The rest of EU is below that. Most of the installations are grid connected.

The PV market in the world continues its explosive growth. United States is building large PV developments everywhere and particularly in Texas and California. There are no world stats available at the moment.

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A couple of years ago we visited some friends in Texas - USA. They have a magnificent home, he, as a developer, built along a river. He also had several other houses in a similar style ready for sale in a large development in the County. We noticed that all these houses had a very large metal roof. As there was a gorgeous continuous sunshine we couldn't help asking why he had not covered these roofs with PV panels to produce each home's own power, considering the permanent use of air conditioning in such a sunny climate? He believed this would have been highly costly and ugly to look at. We had our PV CD-ROM with us and gave him some extended information about this and showed him the "looks" PV panels now have, to enhance the attractiveness of a house rather than making it ugly. We also told him about Austria, where having PV panels on your roof is a proof of your awareness and participation towards the energy pollution problem, and in Austria it is actually considered as a "status symbol".

All this made him think... and 2 years later our friend has not only applied the "good advice" for himself but is developing a huge project in Texas around Clean Energy with a great success and participation of PV and other RES equipment manufacturers, for the benefit of the inhabitants of the State of Texas.

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AUTHORS:

• Dr. Gian Luca Ferrero - LIOR - Belgium
  Collaboration: N.R.E.L. Golden - Colorado - USA

This sector contains

• A complete and up-to-date overview of Solar Photovoltaic technologies , richly illustrated with photos, diagrams and drawings of Photovoltaic systems all over the world: latest photovoltaic technologies and developments, materials, applications, environmental & economic aspects. It contains ± 4900 screens - highly illustrated, interactive and multimedia.

  Example projects : hundreds of replicable International projects explained & illustrated from homes to industry - Examples of demonstration and commercial Photovoltaic systems: technical data and often costs

  Directory of over 1.400 Suppliers, Sub-suppliers, Engineering Companies, Consultants, Certification Centres, R&D Centres, Education & Training Institutions, Associations and other Organisations:

  Databases : legislations, statistics, conversions, image gallery, publications, ready paths etc 

  Special modules: “build your own path” for presentations or teaching / training sessions Titles, Keywords & definitions in 5 languages (FR-DE-IT-ES-NL). Basic text in plain English. Formulae for calculations (also on this site)