The Mediterranean Photovoltaic Power Plant Revolution

[jpak]

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50020

Photovoltaic (PV) power plants could be supplying 26 million households in the Mediterranean with electricity by 2020, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) has said. Boosted by a new law that gives generous financial incentives to solar electricity producers, PV plants are being built in Italy and Greece at a phenomenal rate.

"At the moment, Germany dominates the solar market in Europe with a 90 percent share. But strong growth in other European countries, especially in southern Europe, will see Germany's share fall to about 50 percent in the next few years," Christoph Wolfsegger of EPIA told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

Wolfsegger noted the photovoltaic market is expanding so fast in Italy and Greece because both countries introduced a feed in tariff (FIT) model similar to Germany's. The feed in model guarantees producers a fixed price for electricity generated from photovoltaic plants.

In Germany, the feed in system of payments was introduced in 2000, and revised in 2004 to cover the full costs involved in producing solar electricity, sparking a boom. Germany will have about 900 MW of installed solar capacity by the end of 2007, according to the German Solar Industry Association (BSW)—almost 20 times as much as in 2000 when there was just 44 MW installed capacity.

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[kestrel91316]

1. Meanwhile, back in the States.........