The study, conducted by the
JRC
Institute for Energy (IE), gives an overview of current
activities in research, manufacturing and market implementation
in the PV sector. The report shows that European PV production
has grown on average by 50% per annum since 1999 and its market
share has increased to 26% in 2008. In terms of electricity
generation, photovoltaics contributed in 2008 for about 0.35% of
Europe's total electricity consumption.
Despite the massive increase, global investment in renewable
energies and energy efficiency was hit by the financial crisis
in late 2008 and early 2009, together with demand reduction in
the key Spanish market. But the industry is now showing signs of
a strong recovery.
The report notes a significant slowdown in investment in the
second half of 2008 (-10% in the third quarter; -23% in the
fourth), that continued in to the first quarter of 2009 (-47%
compared with the fourth quarter of 2008). However this has now
started to reverse - in the second quarter of 2009 investment
was +83% compared with the first quarter.
Other key findings of the report included:
- In 2008, China became the leading producer of solar cells with an annual production of about 2.4 GW. If this trend continues, China could have about 32% of the worldwide production capacity by 2012;
- An increasing number of players are entering the market, therefore the market share of the 10 largest PV manufacturers decreased from 80% in 2004 to 50% in 2008;
- In 2008, thin-film solar PV modules had reached 12%-14% of market share;
- Concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) is an emerging market with approximately 17MW cumulative installed capacity in 2008.